Hinatarrific
by Squire of Gothos
Summary: Naruto has deep dark plans for Konoha, but what about Hinata's plans for him? Of course, Hinata has more to worry about than just Naruto. Half the time she doesn't know what's real or not. First she has to piece her life back together
1. Hinata

Author's Notes – This prologue is a response to a challenge from a certain ffnet member, hope you enjoy it. You know who you are ;-p (if you don't enjoy it, well, bite me. Or tell me how to improve, I'm always open to criticism.)

* * *

Story Start

Profound tiredness hung in the air of the great arena, almost stifling in its abundance. Bruised and battered teams stood around the upper-level balcony, watching intently, or not so intently, as the case may be. Some ninja were milling around, taking the opportunity to do a bit of recon disguised as visits to the facilities. Others were more open in their glances, confident in their strength. Everybody was battered and dirty to some degree, with only two exceptions. Well, three if you count the jounins and the test proctors. One of the exceptions was standing like a statue, death in his eyes, his arms folded as he watched the fight. From the gourd slung on his back, a light dusting of sand drifted to the floor, swirling around in the invisible currents of air on that side of the arena.

Kurenai turned her gaze towards the other exception, who was currently meandering along the balcony, her steps apparently random. Short raven hair and a hooded zip-up jacket hid the Leaf Village forehead-protector that was fastened loosely around her neck. The girl narrowly avoided walking right into a Hidden Rock ninja, somehow turning aside at the last minute as she continued her journey. The nin gave her a bored glance that belied his surprise.

Somehow, Hinata had come to an agreement with whatever lurked in the forest of death. That had to be the answer, because while the girl's Jyuuken taijutsu was passable, she had no other notable skills, other than... that. Kurenai shuddered inwardly, as the girl's face turned just for a moment, allowing her to see the faint tracery of distended blood-vessels that indicated her byakugan was active.

_Of course it's active. It's always active._ Lately it had almost become a kind of game, but no matter where she saw the Hyuga heiress, no matter what she was doing, her byakugan was always active. It surprised her that she couldn't remember precisely in the past months when Hinata had begun leaving it always on. _No, tell the truth, Kurenai._ At a deep level, beyond what she would show to anyone else including Asuma, it frightened her. Truth was important in her art. _Always tell the truth, if only to yourself._ It was her ninja way, a necessary part of her specialty, genjutsu.

_Maybe it's a kind of chakra exercise._ She had no idea of the exact chakra requirements of the byakugan. As close-knit as the Hyuga clan was, they let nothing slip out, especially concerning their precious blood-line limit. Still, she had not seen any other Hyuga make such use of the ability. She knew, _knew,_ that Hinata had only average chakra potential. So then how?

_I don't know,_ she finally admitted to herself. _I don't really _know_ how much chakra potential she has. I don't know why, how, or even when she started using the ability so constantly. I don't know anything._ The fear curled around at the back of her mind, like a snake, as she watched the enigmatic Hyuga heiress continue to walk along, her face blank, as if she wasn't seeing anything. _Or as if she's seeing everything._ Which of course she was, even if she was not consciously focusing on everything. Kurenai turned away suddenly, unable to escape the overwhelming feeling that she had been caught peeping.

"Alright! Now I'm gonna unveil my new Secret Technique!" One could hear the capitalization of the last two words as Naruto formed his hands into a seal. His exhilarated grin seemed out of place, especially since it looked as if he was about to collapse. His bright orange jump-suit was so dirty the boy could have actually blended pretty decently into a pile of dead foliage. Kurenai let her attention be drawn by the fight, immersing herself in the present so as to force the niggling fear back out of her conscious mind.

_Looks can be deceiving._ Kiba had beaten the boy down pretty badly, but he would not stay down, and that was the problem. It was Kiba's problem, anyway. _A defeat will help him grow, and perhaps overcome his brashness._ And defeat him Naruto would, even if she didn't know how. Something about him set off alarms in her mind. He had a plan. She could see it in his eyes, how they shined when he spoke of his upcoming technique. _So unlike a ninja. _Boldly proclaiming his intent to his enemy, as if the match were nothing more than a joust, with everything in the open. He was so sure of himself, so confident that there was nothing his opponent could do, as if the world was dancing to his tune, unknowingly a part of the most elaborate genjutsu ever devised.

She shook her head, clearing it of the strange tendrils that had been slowly creeping up. _It's just a match, and he's just being Naruto._

Kiba apparently thought the same, for he made a few seals and activated his quadruped beast ninpo, leaping suddenly behind Naruto into his blind zone. What he didn't expect was the biological weapon that Naruto unleashed rather loudly.

"-gyaaaaah!" Kiba fell to the floor, writhing around in agony as the remaining seven of the Rookie Nine gaped, astonished at what had just happened.

"Dammit, that was an accident!" Naruto snapped at the recalcitrant crowd "_Now_ for the technique...!"

Kurenai shook her head in amusement as the boy kage-bunshined and finished his opponent off. She glanced over and happened to stare right into the eyes of Hinata. The girl was still thirty feet away, but she had apparently finished her circuit of the stadium, returning to where she had begun. Her blank white eyes slid off Kurenai's as she continued walking, aimlessly. _Not aimlessly, _her mind argued. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, driving off the strange feeling. It was one of the problems of being a genjutsu specialist, that she tended to see a little too far underneath the underneath, sometimes blowing the smallest things out of proportion. _But not in this case._

She released the breath she had unconsciously been holding, looking over at the scoreboard as Hayate declared Naruto the winner amidst a bunch of coughing. The only thing to do whenever she went off on one of her Hinata-related tangents was to look around, put her mind on something else, but not intentionally. Otherwise her unease would grow, as if it knew what she was doing. As if it knew she was trying to get rid of it. The scoreboard display changed, as the two contestants for the next match were shown.

Hyuga, Hinata. Hyuga, Neji.

Her heart constricted a bit. It was times like this that she seriously considered the possibility that the Hokage really was controlling the results of the drawing, as opposed to it being all random. Some of the pairings were just a little too perfect, as if designed to help certain people advance, and teach others a needed lesson.

"Hinata-" she turned, and lost her breath when she found the girl a yard away and closing, arms slowly rising, out to her sides and a little to the front, palms faced forward. Almost as if she were going for a hug, but not quite. _She's snapped,_ Kurenai thought, reaching out to put her arms around the Hyuga heiress. _This matching isn't good for her, but at least I can comfort her-_ her train of thought derailed abruptly when Hinata's arms changed direction and she took her instructor's hand, putting her other arm around the woman's shoulder, as if they both were about to take part in a close romantic slow dance.

_She's snapped,_ Kurenai repeated numbly to herself, trying to keep herself from showing any outward sign of her distress. And then, _She timed this. Somehow. She was right there when Naruto's match ended. How...?_ Her thoughts fell into chaos when Hinata turned her head to the side, laying it on the woman's shoulder as she allowed Kurenai to lead her in a dance, to music that apparently only she could hear.

* * *

Twenty degrees counter-clockwise, nine hundred and forty three feet away from Hinata's position was a rather up-scale bar. The mood in the bar was slow, languid. Couples danced, middle-aged upstanding citizens of Konaha sat at bar stools drinking. Everything here was high-class. With her byakugan, Hinata was _there,_ dancing with her Naruto-sama. He led a bit tentatively at first, but he got better within a few seconds, as if picking up on her subtle rhythm. Just like Naruto-sama, always adjusting to new conditions, ready for anything. Planning. Intricate plans.

She saw through the front he had put up for the rest of Konoha, leading them on into thinking he was a loud brash idiot. For so long he had led them all on. Soon, he would unleash, whatever it was he had prepared. She could _see,_ all that he had done when he knew no one else was looking. No one else but her. She saw all that he had done the past five years, and how it was all slowly coming to a head. Like a giant clock, intricate with it's gears and springs, everything was being prepared for, something, in as little as three days from now, or as many as seven.

As he had loudly proclaimed his intention to unveil a secret technique, back in the arena, for a moment she thought she had miscalculated, and that he was going to do it all right there, whatever he had planned for the past five years. She had inwardly tensed, as she walked along, preparing to jump into the arena. It there was no more time, extreme measures had to be taken. But it had not been so, and she had continued her walk-a-bout. Which had led to now, her arms around the orange-clad genin, as she danced with him.

"Why will you not tell me your plans?" she asked, almost idly. Naruto-sama never fell for anything indirect. She knew this, as well as she knew the back of Neji's hand. Always be direct, but never forceful. Like you want to know what you are asking, but at the same time couldn't care less.

"What plans?" His raspy voice spoke in her ear as they turned across the dance floor.

_A point for you,_ she admitted. He had changed the rules yet again, and she would have to spend a few precious hours figuring them out. When she stayed silent, he spoke again, his voice deceptively casual.

"Did you watch my fight with Kiba?" His normal rasp sounded different, as if it were someone else clothing themselves in Naruto-sama's voice.

_Undoubtedly one of his many tests,_ she decided. He was always testing her, seeing if she was worthy. "Of course I watched," she responded, matching his tone. "I'm always watching." She could be truthful now, she felt that. This was one of those times, one of those moments when they were together, and yet not. During these times she _had _to be truthful, that was the way the game was played. When she met him next, though, she would have to be circumspect as always, not even mentioning this brief moment when they were close.

Naruto led her slowly, inevitably, towards a doorway of light etched into the wall of the tavern. He turned her around, his hands and attitude more encouraging than he usually was with her.

"Your match is next," he spoke softly into her ear. "Do your best." He pushed her gently through the door of light.

* * *

Kurenai watched from the doorway as her pupil slowly walked away from her and into the arena towards Neji.

"Do your best," she whispered again, more to herself than to Hinata.

* * *

Neji Hyuga watched as the main-house Hyuga heiress approached, and he sneered. No matter her weirdness, no matter how much Hanabi was freaked out by her, she was weak. He knew that without a doubt, having sparred with her countless times. Countless times he had put her down in front of her father, ostensibly acting as her teacher, her sensei, in the Jyuuken, the Hyuga martial art.

"I don't care how crazy you are, or what stories Hanabi tells, you can't win this." He spoke slowly and carefully, the contempt he felt for her showing clearly. He was Branch House, and she was Main. Fate was at work in them both. He was forever her servant, her protector, but at this moment, he was her opponent. The same Fate that made him her slave, assured him victory. He was Fated to win this match, and nothing could change that. Hinata advanced, giving no indication she had even heard him speak. "You should give up now, Hinata, before you get hurt. You-" His words died as their auras touched.

He sank back slightly, unconsciously, into the sixty-four trigram stance. There would be no half-measures from him in this fight. He would methodically take her apart, teaching her the lesson she had not learned in all his sparring matches with her. He would show her Fate, that while she was Master, and he was slave, he was also ninja, and she was not.

As their personal spaces melded, and his byakugan activated, feelings leached their way into his mind. It was the blessing, and the curse, of the Hyuga ability, to easily read an opponent's emotion. He blanked himself, completely opening his mind, freeing his body to _react_, to move in response to whatever threat came against him. He knew instinctively that it was almost over, because Hinata had never been able to make the conceptual connection about Jyuuken that he had made. She always lost, unable to free herself as he had freed himself.

His almost-all-seeing eyes widened as she did something completely unexpected. She lifted her right hand to her left shoulder, looked down at the ground languidly, and shrugged her left shoulder, oozing out of her jacket. Against his will he swallowed once, bracing himself against the liquid sexuality coming from the girl before him.

She walked up to him, and the closer she got, the more he opened himself, preparing to move, in any direction, at any time, at the first hint of aggression. She slid up, raised a hand and reached between his frozen Jyuuken stance, placing her hand just below his right shoulder. He felt nothing, no killer intent, no aggression. Her other hand came up to his left bicep, touching him. Her left hand moved to another point, her movements beginning to quicken. By the time she touched his fifth chakra point, and he still felt no aggression or chakra pulse, he began to wonder.

Her hands blurred into motion, and still he felt no pulse of chakra in any of her strikes. _That's not true,_ he thought suddenly. There was just a bare hint of energy, like a spiderweb, wherever she touched. _Too little. There's not enough energy there to penetrate or disrupt my chakra coils. What is she doing?_ Regardless, it was time for her lesson. He moved to block, and began a strike of his own. A spike of aggression caused him change his strike into a block.

At her thirty fifth 'strike' it hit him all at once, leaving him nearly breathless. _No. She couldn't. Not even she would be so..._ Twenty four strikes blurred by in two and a half seconds, draining him of his energy, leaving him panting on the ground, looking up at her as she froze, her palm stopping two inches from his forehead, the last strike incomplete. He longed to bring his head forward and force her to finish the combination, but his paralysis was complete, save for his voice and his involuntary functions. His heart pounded painfully, insistently. Desperately.

"Why...?" he gasped out. She was not even looking down at him, her unfocused eyes seeming to stare out across the arena into nothingness. She brought down her middle finger, and flicked his forehead. He collapsed onto the floor, his muscles quivering uncontrollably as she wandered off, humming vacantly to herself. He tried one more time to muster the strength to talk.

"How could you..." he swallowed, his voice gaining strength. "How could you bring the secret Hyuga bedroom techniques out into the open like that?? It's forbidden..." When she did not answer, the frustrated branch-house Hyuga gasped out in sudden frustration. "At least give me the last strike...!" He knew that if she did not, he would be tense for days, unable to train, unable to sleep. He watched her walk, aimlessly, and not aimlessly. She meandered across the arena to where her sensei stood open-mouthed, shocked by the unexpected reversal. She ignored him, disdained him as he had done to her for so long.

Then she spoke.

"The last strike is reserved for another, cousin Neji."

* * *

Hinata walked, one foot in front of the other, considering. The technique she had used would have only worked on two people, Neji, with whom she had trained for so long, and on one other, the one she imprinted herself to, when she became a wife. She fled from the thought, in case Naruto-sama was there, looking at her, knowing her thoughts. If he caught her pondering the unponderable, it would disappear, as surely as a birthday wish spoken aloud. Her all-seeing byakugan, still active of course, quickly found out Naruto-sama where he stood with his team. Her ears faintly picked up on the argument taking place, but even if she could not hear the specific words, with her ability she could lip-read.

"Hey dobe, get me some popcorn." She could imagine the Uchiha's slithering voice.

"Get it yourself, you teme!" Naruto's hands were clasped behind his head, scorn evident in his features as he glared at his teammate, acting as if he had not even seen her put-down of her branch-house inferior. Same as always. _So sly, Naruto-sama._ Of course he was forgetting about her eidetic memory. She replayed the battle in her mind, this time focusing on the position of Team Seven, looking for any change in expression. He was arguing with the Uchiha, same as he was doing now. Not doing now. She suddenly returned to the present, feeling Naruto's eyes on her. She banished her thoughts suddenly, careful to retain only admiration for the boy who suddenly seemed to have noticed that she had won.

"Woohoo! Way to go Hinata!" He punched both fists in the air, screaming like a maniac. Putting on the usual I'm-an-idiot act. Now she would never know for sure if he had actually watched her fight, and was just acting out now, or if he was testing her yet again, looking for any slip in her devotion for him. She cleared her thoughts, coincidentally in the exact way Neji had assumed she could not, and she became a blank slate, reflecting what she hoped Naruto-sama wanted to see. For some reason she felt that the roles were reversed in this particular fight, that she was in the position Neji had been in, and Naruto was where she had been. In this game he was far more astute than she. She could only hope that he saw that, and allowed for it in his calculation.

* * *

Kurenai stood, rooted to her spot by the swiftness of Hinata's win. She watched numbly as the girl walked by Neji's collapsed form, made a hand-sign almost idly, and disappeared in a poof of swirling smoke. Floating to the ground out of the smoke-swirl was a single black rose.

_Kawarimi._ The jounin's mouth twitched. _I still want to know where she keeps the black roses she uses for that._


	2. Dreams

Hinata awoke, her blood-line limit activating almost unconsciously as a strange mixture of excitement and fear lifted her spirits. _Today something important happens,_ she thought, still a bit muddled from sleep. _No. Tomorrow something important happens. Today I must prepare._ She sat up, a smile tugging her lips at her quandary. It was hard to prepare for something you didn't know anything about, but she had grown used to that by now. Going walking was the quickest way to shed some light on the situation, and so she stood, idly taking in her surroundings as she prepared to leave.

Kurenai was standing in front of her mirror in her own bedroom, touching up her hair. Asuma was walking out the front door. Hinata giggled, not having to guess what her sensei had been doing with the rather laid-back joinin. Her questing eyes had long since revealed to her the mundane details of what men and women did in their beds at night. She slid open the door to her room in Kurenai's apartment. The woman had been too kind to take her in after her father had thrown her out... when? Long ago. She had forgotten. Bad memories tended to suppress all events around them. She was simply happy to be in a somewhat stable environment.

She paused at her door, letting a stray memory route its way through her so burdened, and yet so very free mind. Crossed her room, she picked up a small pack that had been lying against the wall, strapping it to her back. Her hands mechanically fastened the straps, pulling them snug. Something in it would trigger a memory, later in the day, and then she would be ready. Satisfied that she was prepared, she stepped out, sliding shut the door as her red-haired landlady came around the corner.

"Kurenai-sensei." The woman's eyes widened ever so slightly. Hinata had spoken without turning, before realizing she was using the back part of her vision without knowing it. "I must walk. I won't be late for our mission."

"Alright." The woman's voice betrayed no hint of the unease she always felt in the presence of her enigmatic pupil. "Take care of yourself, Hinata." She was referring to proper nutrition, seeing as the Hyuga heiress had not yet eaten breakfast, but there were more important things on Hinata's mind. Or at least there would be, soon. As soon as she remembered.

"Yes, sensei," she said almost as an afterthought, just so the woman would know she had heard.

* * *

Kurenai watched her pupil depart, feeling that strange sensation she always felt whenever the girl said 'yes sensei.' The way she inflected the words, it was as if she were doing her best to be submissive to a senior that she respected, while trying to hide the fact that another held her true allegiance.

_Who is it, Hinata?_ She doubted the girl was receiving additional secret training from another jounin. And even if she was, that other sensei would never demand such an allegiance, knowing that Kurenai was her team leader. It would undermine all sense of order and discipline to conduct such secret training. She had considered tailing the girl at times, but she never knew when this mysterious training might be taking place. She was always on time for every Team Eight function. In any case, the girl's byakugan made matters more difficult than she was comfortable with. She could do it, probably. But if she was found out, the girl might never trust her again. Things would change, that was sure.

It was not that this secret, whatever it was, affected her training, or her performance during missions, or anything really. It was just Kurenai's personal suspicions, and she was not willing to tail her student just to satisfy herself. If her woman's intuition had provided her with something, anything solid, she would have acted in a heart-beat, but there was nothing. Just that faint niggling at the back of the back of her mind.

* * *

Walking along the streets of Konoha, Hinata almost idly checked up on Naruto in her search for the missing piece of her unknown puzzle. He was within her sphere of influence, the circle of her vision, as it extended around her to its limits. The limits that were set to help her always keep her ability on. Other things helped her, she knew this logically, since simply keeping her enhanced vision on cost an abundant amount of chakra, never mind how far she looked. Her limits were expanding, faster each day, but for now it was enough.

He was still in bed, and his machinations around the city were humming along. Most were not fully in his control at this point, but that was not necessary. Everything was inevitable now.

She had gained one answer, tomorrow was not the day everything went down, so it was not that. She fingered the strap of the pack on her back, her only other clue. Now that she was away from those that knew her, those that she spent the most time with, she felt an almost irresistible compulsion to open it up. But she needed to be somewhere safer than the open streets.

Finding a side alley, she sank to her knees behind a dumpster, bringing the pack around and off her shoulders. No windows betrayed her position in the dead-end alleyway, and there was only one entrance, not counting the empty open sky up towards the roof. An awning hid her from eyes on one side, and her body interposed on the other as she carefully undid the drawstrings of the satchel, and opened it up.

A familiar anxious excitement overtook her, and she knew she had done something similar to this many times before. _One of the joys of the one I serve. It's new every time._ The unusual thought did not surprise her, since she was used to having her mind interrupted from time to time with maddeningly familiar yet not quite fully remembered teachings.

She pulled out a rectangular box made of wood, running her hands over its finely-grained surface. It was small, perhaps half a hand-span deep, two hand-spans on one side and one hand-span on the other, forming the rectangular shape.

Her hands must have unwittingly found a hidden button, for she heard the hiss of a pressure seal being released, and a hairline crack appeared around the entire circumference of the middle of the box. She put one hand on the bottom, another on the top, pulling the two halves apart. As the top slid off, she was met by a multitude of small vials. Four rows of eight of them, thirty two to be precise, all separated from each other and the box by a kind of foam material to prevent them from breaking during the many harsh changes of direction that a ninja often underwent.

_All but three of them are empty, and I must use one of them tomorrow morning, very early._ The instructions slid through her mind, and she put the lid back on the box, slipping it back into her pack. With the final instruction now in her waking consciousness, she was ready. And vulnerable. Until the morning came, she would be vulnerable.

* * *

Noriko Hyuga continued flattening out the dough she was about to use to make noodles for the midday meal. She suppressed the urge to cross the room and enfold her sulking son in a hug. It was rare enough that he came to visit her, as engaged as he was in his training, and she didn't want to unwittingly drive him off.

"I can't believe I lost," he huffed, chin in hand, elbow resting on the table at which he sat. Mrs. Hyuga retrieved a knife and began deftly cutting the dough into strips, weighing her next words.

"You do know you played right into her hands by training with her," she said. Without all the intense training, the girl's special technique would not have worked.

"Her father ordered me to do that!" he snapped, then instantly regretted it.

"Neji Hyuga...!" she brandished the knife, fighting for words. "You know, I promised I'd hold back, but you're just too much! I know how much you went over there on your own to 'teach' her." She considered her son, who had lapsed back into silence. "As much as you torment that poor girl, you should be glad she didn't use the Seal on you."

"-and what's _that_ supposed to mean?" he grumbled. His mother turned back to her cooking with a sigh. "I'd expect something like this from Rock Lee or Gai-sensei," he muttered. "The first thing the man did after the fight was embrace me in tears, saying that '...this defeat would fuel the fires of my youth,' or something. Couldn't you have spent just a _little_ more time telling me about the birds and the bees-" He cut himself off abruptly as a blush crept down her neck. The knife was suddenly embedded in the wall three inches from his ear, quivering in the wood. _-oh damn, I think I went too far,_ he thought, as the woman turned, her activated byakugan boring into his skull.

* * *

Forests and woodland surrounded Team Eight where they sat in a rough circle, eating lunch on the final leg of their journey back to Konoha. 'Rough circle,' because Hinata stood some distance away from the group, looking into the forest, her vacant eyes seeing something the others did not, apparently. She had already finished eating.

Shino put away the remainder of his own meal, standing to join her in her vigil. He stopped by her side, hands in the pockets of his trench coat, expression covered by the coat's collar and the ubiquitous dark glasses he wore. Hinata turned her head fractionally towards him, giving him a friendly smile. He nodded, and they both looked out into the forest.

Kurenai considered the strange friendship between the two, as she had often done before. It was an odd matching, even though she knew their relationship was purely platonic, if very close. Each of them was odd, in their own way, and it made a kind of sense. They both hid secrets from others. Shino, with his kikai bugs, and Hinata... what was her secret? Kurenai wanted to say roses, but that made no sense whatsoever.

"She's doing it again," Kiba said in an undertone towards Kurenai.

"-again?" The jounin gave her pupil a questioning gaze.

"You have to have noticed at some point," he said, his exasperation eroding away the usual respect between teacher and student. "She gets like this every three or four days."

In fact, Kurenai did know, but it always helped to get another perspective, preferably without losing the subtle aura of hidden knowledge by breaking down in front of a student. Every three or four days, the Hyuga heiress would become more withdrawn than usual, sometimes staring for hours out into sections of the forest. Never in the same direction, but then if it had been the same place, it would have made things far more simple. Something Hinata definitely was not.

After a day or so of being withdrawn, she would suddenly switch personalities like a light-switch, becoming warm and centered, almost normal. This of course would not last, as the cycle repeated over and over. Kurenai returned her attention to the ranting Kiba.

"-I'm telling you, this time I'm following her. I mean it sensei, don't try to stop me."

She turned her eyes from him back to Hinata, trying to puzzle out the girl's oddities. She was still standing, looking. Something about her carried a sense of yearning, or waiting, as if something important was soon to take place. Everything pointed to her going off somewhere, and doing, something. Her mind went back to the possibility of extracurricular training. The problem was that there was no time for such training. Often enough, she herself shared a meal with the girl during the time she would have been training with this other, whoever it was.

More than once, the girl had changed personalities within several minutes of being in her presence. Once she had watched as the Hinata had left, walked out the door, and then not five minutes later walked back in radiating contentment and peace, a completely different person.

She felt a bit guilty about not restraining Kiba, but a part of her wanted him to follow her, to take the risk himself so she wouldn't have to. Children did things like this all the time, and forgave each other easily.

* * *

The routine mission having concluded successfully, the rest of the team had already returned to Konoha proper, but Hinata had stayed behind. Kiba lay on the ground on his stomach, not one hundred feet away from where the girl had laid out a sleep-roll and curled up to go to sleep. It wasn't unusual for her to spend the night out in the forests surrounding Konoha. She did so quite often, sometimes as many as three times a week. If he was going to stay with her, he would have to stay out all night too, since it looked like she was planning to do the same. It wasn't the first time he had suddenly spent the night out, and he had yet to tell his parents that he was back from his mission, so it would probably all turn out alright. His nose twitched as he checked the area for intruders, or anyone she might have been waiting for.

Nothing.

Stock still, in case her ability caught him moving, he lay, settling in for a long night. Only when he was sure she was asleep could he change positions in confidence.

* * *

Flying.

Quite often Hinata dreamed of flying. Usually she awoke from such night travels with a feeling of bliss that carried throughout the day.

All of Konoha spread out beneath her as she soared up higher into the sky towards the thin cloud layer above. She could make out the familiar patterns of light. The Uchiha estate. Her own Hyuga compound, bathed in the yellow of street lamps, and the dots of light marking the positions of open windows. The dark rectangular block that was the run-down apartment building in which Naruto-sama lived. His room was still lit. He was probably studying some new jutsu, or going over some carefully-laid plan. Thinking about him jarred her, bringing a lucidity to her dream that was shocking in its onset.

Everything suddenly stood out to her with a sharpness of clarity that was not present in real life. The dots of light below that were street-lamps became a rich yellow-gold. The dark sky became a deep midnight blue covered by patches of dark gray. The brilliant white crescent of the moon shone through for just a moment, the slowly moving clouds covering it up as quickly as they had shown it. She looked up, hoping to catch another glimpse, and she found herself rising upwards, accelerating towards the clouds.

Fear mingled with her excitement, for she knew from past experience that the higher she went, the more erratic her thoughts would become until she woke up, losing the freedom of the dream. It was inevitable though, because the higher she went, the less control she had. She managed to pause her ascent for a moment, but she could not will herself back down. It took all her dreaming attention to stay where she was, suspended high above the city of her birth.

Finally her attention lapsed, and she had a feeling of immense upward speed. She shot up into the darkness, inhaling sharply as she came awake, eyes closed. She was floating on top of the clouds, on her back, the moon shining brightly above her. Intense anxiety welled up, because she could feel her body, but in her peripheral vision she could only see the dark gray clouds as far as her visibility allowed, sparkling with the light of the moon.

She was awake, and high in the air. Or not. With a start, she realized her byakugan was still activated. It must have stayed on all night, as opposed to deactivating at some point like it usually did. She was a point of consciousness in the clouds, unable to see her own body.

She found it hard to believe that she had the range to see all the way up past the cloud layer, but reality assaulted her, not letting her lie to herself. Then she felt just how attenuated things were. Her vision to the sides was almost nonexistent, or rather, was like normal vision. All around her, she could see the clouds stretching away into the distance, and to one side, mountains loomed ominously. She tried to focus on them, bring them closer, and that was when she discovered the truth.

To get this high, she had narrowed her field of vision almost to nothing, and so up here she was limited to normal sight. The realization alleviated her anxiety, and suddenly she was falling rapidly back to earth, leaving the stunning view of the clouds behind. She descended rapidly, drawn like a rubber band back to her body, until her normal limited spherical view returned to her. She observed her surroundings, taking stock. It was just barely morning, an hour or two past midnight.

She knew she was too keyed up to get back to sleep, so she sat up, huddling in her sleeping bag, waiting for the chills of sleep to fade, as her body temperature rose to normal. Her excitement returned, as she remembered her pack, and what it contained. Now was the time. She pulled it to her, undoing the strings, pulling the wooden box out and opening it. She pulled one of the stoppered vials out, turning it over in her hands. In the darkness of early morning, she couldn't see the color of the liquid inside, but it didn't matter.

She pulled the stopper out, and the strong scent of roses filled the air around her. She closed her eyes, faint memories tickling the edges of her mind, just barely out of reach. The aroma enveloped her, until a sudden breeze diluted it, ruffling her hair. She put the vial to her lips, took the liquid into her mouth, and swallowed.

The initial sweetness lingered in her mouth and throat after swallowing, and it felt like the liquid was coating the insides of her throat as it went down, until it was all used up. For a moment she feared that there wasn't enough, and that she would have to drink another vial. That there had not been enough liquid to make it to her stomach. A wave of nausea hit her suddenly, bringing a kind of relief. It had worked. Whatever it was.

The sick feeling crawled around in her stomach as the sweet taste took on a slight bitter edge. Her mouth began to water and she swallowed, putting her hands to her mouth, trying not to throw up. Her whole body began to sweat, and she blinked her eyes, which were rapidly becoming dry. Around her, everything in the darkness began to swim, blurring together as she blinked rapidly. The tree trunks were a dark red, and the leaves were a brighter shade, moving in the breeze. For a moment she fought against what was happening, bringing a sharp pain to her temples. She slumped over to her side on the ground, shivering as she felt her heart-beat grow erratic.

_Am I dying? _For a moment a sense of unfairness came over her, so strong as to bring tears to her eyes._ It wasn't supposed to be like this. I don't want to die... _She felt a presence near her, not malevolent, but at the same time not friendly. She felt its amusement at how she railed against the unknown. For a moment she felt an intense hatred of this_ other,_ this thing that was watching as she lay there suffering.

_Help me,_ she pleaded with it. Her plea only increased the feeling of amusement she felt coming the formless observer. Her hate died away as her body alternated between heat and chills.She realized the futility of her feelings. If anything, it only showed how immature she was, especially in what quite possibly were her last moments. With an effort she banished the useless emotion, and with it her sense of self. She accepted her circumstances, and her lack of knowledge. She knew nothing about this other, or its motives, and yet she had lashed out at it. With the last vestiges of her will, she sent out her sorrow. Tried to ask forgiveness for her useless hate. She had no idea if she had been successful, and her sense of the other presence faded.

_I'm sorry, Kurenai-sensei. I'm sorry, Naruto-sama. _Her sight dimmed, and her body rapidly became numb. As she lay there, her breathing began to slow, until all her remaining consciousness was involved in her attempt to keep taking in air. As she struggled, all that as left was her sense of smell. Everything smelled of roses.


	3. Garden

Author's Notes – Just thought I'd mention that this is AU, but if you don't realize that by now, I fear for you ;-p

Also, this piece is now being preread by AATTrueGGamer, thanks for the help, man. You've already saved my butt once in this chapter, I'm in good hands.

* * *

Chapter 3

She breathed in suddenly, sharply, as the chill of the early morning forest air curled around her arms and legs. Beneath her, something squirmed in the ground, slowing to stillness as she shivered.

_I am alive._

She was standing naked in the middle of a forest, her hands formed into a seal. She released the seal, inadvertently dropping a small glass vial as she covered her breasts with an arm. Her blood-line limit expanding outwards, and seconds later she breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared that there was no one nearby. She looked down, noticing the vial she had dropped.

_I drank what was in it, and now I am here. _Her gaze drifted lower, down into the earth. Beneath her an intricate root system spread. It was as if a plant or bush had occupied the spot in which she now stood, and had suddenly been cut off at ground level.

_Or as if I myself were a bush,_ she thought with equal parts amusement and anxiety. She shifted on her feet, unconsciously ensuring that she wasn't somehow rooted to the ground. The trees whispered around her, leaves brushing against each other, as if the tall dark giants were conversing amongst one another, trading unnameable secrets.

Change. It was as frightening as it was exhilarating. Her life was one of change, she knew that well by now, but no amount of foreknowledge ever seemed to help. It was one thing to be unaware of what you were changing into, but often she didn't even know what she had been before, which left her with the terrifyingly abrupt present.

She shivered a bit in the early morning chill, and suppressed the desperate urge to go walking. It was what she did whenever she didn't know what to do, but it just felt like a bad idea at the moment. Taking a moment to look around, she found to her surprise that despite the early morning darkness, everything was clear.

_Just like my dream._ The ground and trees were deep brown and vivid green, offset by the subtle lightening of the western sky. She squeezed a fist, looking at it. Her body felt felt stronger than normal, full of energy. A flicker to her left drew her eyes. Through the trees she saw an unearthly glow which drew more and more of her attention the longer she stared at it. With a moment's concentration she brought the strange phenomena closer. Through the trees she saw what appeared to be a hazy cylinder of golden light shining into the sky, and despite her attempts she could not penetrate it. There were not many things that could block her blood-line limit, but something more important struck her.

_Why have I never noticed such a thing before?_ She knew from the direction that it was in the middle of one of the forbidden areas of the forest, but something that looked like that would have drawn attention by now, even if she herself had somehow missed it.

A sense of unreality bombarded her causing her to bend down slowly, and run her fingers through the cool grass. Dew drops caressed her fingers, bringing a sensation that could not be faked. Her personal training had left her intimately familiar with what dreams and hallucinations felt like, and this was not one of those. Somewhat reassured of the solidity of the situation, the glow in the distance became more and more tantalizing as the seconds went by. When no further thoughts occurred to her, she shrugged to herself, stood, leaped up to a nearby tree branch and set out for the strange phenomenon.

Jumping from tree to tree, her leaps grew longer and longer. She had never been able to leap such long distances before, and the feel of the wind on her bare skin drew a bubble of laughter from the center of her being. Her previous anxiety was by now completely overcome by the excitement welling up within her as she approached the strange light.

* * *

Ghostly laughter made Kiba's ears twitch, and he jerked awake, instantly coming out of the light trance he had put himself in to better watch over Hinata without completely going to sleep. Akamaru stirred, then jumped up, sniffing the air. Kiba immediately looked to where the girl lay, and, not seeing anything overtly wrong, looked all around. Something felt off, but he couldn't quite place it. His nose was not of much help, the scent of roses almost completely washing out all other smells.

_Where's that smell coming from anyway? _He narrowed his eyes, wrinkling his nose against the cloying smell as he tried to figure out what had caused him to awaken. Hinata was huddled on her side, asleep...

_No. Not just asleep, she's in a fetal position..._

He covered the distance to her position in a few bounds, his hand light on her shoulder. Her eyes were clenched shut, and her hands were wrapped around one another, as if holding something. She came awake with a sharp intake of breath, her hands opening. He looked closely, but they were quite empty. She looked up at him curiously, then smiled as Akamaru sniffed her hands.

"I..." He tried not to look like he had just been put on the spot. "I thought... hey, is something wrong?"

"I'm alright, Kiba," she answered, life chasing the sleep from her eyes. "What do you need?"

He tried not to grimace. She had changed personalities again. If this had been the Hinata of a day ago, she might have stared at him blankly before getting up to dance with a tree or something.

"It's nothing," he said. Whenever she was like this, he felt bad about trying to get information from her. _Not that I would have had any success anyway. _Empty-headed friendly Hinata, calm centered Hinata, crazier-than-a-bat Hinata, none of them ever let anything important slip out in conversation. He forced a grin, scratching the back of his head. "...ah, um, I guess I'd better get going if I'm gonna eat before our team meeting."

"I see," she responded. Ironically, her blood-line limit chose that moment to activate. "I'll join you if that's okay." She looked up at him, her expression cheerful. He shuddered inwardly and Akamaru whined, sensing his master's distress. A cheerful byakuganed face was like someone smiling in a friendly way as they held a kunai to your throat, or at least it felt that way to him.

"Sure," his mouth said, carefully disconnected from his inner fears. She rolled up her bed roll and gathered what supplies were still scattered about. Minutes later, they were walking back towards Konoha, leaving the impromptu campsite behind.

She never asked why he had been there to awaken her, and this only made him more nervous.

* * *

As she traveled effortlessly through the treetops towards the strange light, apprehension began to push its way against her previous excitement. For some reason she was making little to no progress, the light being almost the same shape and intensity as it had been when she had started out. Just as she began to feel a touch of exasperation, the light seemed to reach out, enveloping her.

Almost without realizing it, she had traveled into the edge of the phenomenon.

Leaping from the next branch to the ground, she looked around. A golden haze surrounded her, cutting all visibility down to a few feet.

The trees around her seemed to vanish, but she knew they were still there, waiting to ambush her if she continued on with any amount of speed. Not even her bloodline limit could pierce the yellow fog, and so she stretched out her arms, walking forward hesitantly. Her memory told her that she should be approaching a tree just about... now.

Her hand went through empty air, and she frowned. Her memory was near perfect, which meant that the only logical thing to conclude was that some of the trees were illusions, caused by whatever protected this place. Whatever this place was.

_Why was I drawn here?_ She wondered in confusion. Of course, to go back was unthinkable, with such mystery now surrounding her, but she could not go forward without having at least some idea of what hidden dangers lurked ahead of her.

She knelt onto all fours, crawling ahead slowly. It was illogical to think that the weird fog would be any less dense down low, but the feeling would not leave her alone. After crawling for what felt like five minutes, the fog did indeed appear to be thinning, but she was tempted to pass it off as her imagination. She ducked her head lower, and things got even clearer. Surprised, she went down flat, till she was sliding forward across the wet grass on her stomach. Ahead, there seemed to be things growing out of the ground, like the bottoms of bushes. Whatever they were, the tops of them were lost in the yellow fog.

She continued forward at a renewed pace, and suddenly the air cleared almost at once, as if a great wind had blown the fog away. She froze, glancing around for any threat. When none presented itself, she slowly stood, looking around in open wonder.

She stood at the very edge of a veritable field of rose bushes. They were planted in varying sizes and colors, and the field spread out almost beyond her ability to comfortably see. She stood in a cluster of pink, but further out she could see the reddish color diffuse into white in one direction, yellow in another, orange, purple. All the bushes of a color-group seemed to be gathered together in a section, and where the sections joined, the colors merged, subliming into each other. She was standing at the edge of a giant color-circle made of rose bushes.

At first it appeared to her that the bushes had been planted at random, even if their color-configuration had obviously been carefully sorted. Then she began to notice a kind of pattern to the paths between the bushes. The closer she looked, spreading the circle of her vision, the more complex the patterns became, as if the bushes themselves, and their arrangement, formed massive seals. Her vision blurred, and she pulled it in rapidly. It was undoubtedly dangerous to look too closely. She moved her vision underground, and was even more shocked. The intricate root systems were obviously artificial, or so it appeared to her eyes. The roots of the bushes near the edge were formed into complicated arrays and patterns, and if she was not mistaken...

She fell to the ground, gasping in shock. She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes, shuddering as her bloodline ability finally relented. The blood vessels surrounding her eyes slowly receded, and she let out a shuddering breath, dropping her hands. There was no mistaking it. The root systems were definitely the cause of the fog, and whatever else protected this place. It was more complex than anything she had ever seen before in a human body, and it had hurt just to look at it. The chakra was immense. Undoubtedly there were protections in place to keep out intrusions such as the one she had just unwittingly attempted. She had no choice but to keep her byakugan deactivated while in this place.

Which made her wonder just what this place was. She ran her hands through the wet grass. Everything that happened in the real world happened here as well. Morning dew, rain, wind. Actually, she had been given no indication that this was not the real world after all. In fact, what she saw was probably the real part, and the forest through which she had so often trekked was undoubtedly the illusion. It would have had to be an excruciatingly complex illusion to fool the many high-level ninjas in Leaf Village, but her eyes had already confirmed that. Or at least she had confirmed it to the best of her ability, before she had to shut them off to prevent injury.

A strange kind of pleasant weariness overtook her, and she sank to her knees. Looking around dully, things in the distance began to take on a subtle blur. A feeling of well-being built up within her, bringing a contentment she never felt back in the harsh world she knew. Everything felt comfortable here, everything felt right. She could stay here forever, and be protected. She never had to go back to her family that didn't want her, to Naruto who never noticed her. She stretched out and lay down on her stomach, relishing the feel of the cool grass along her body, closing her eyes as it tickled her face.

_Just for a moment,_ she thought muzzily. _I just need to sleep for a moment, then I'll explore._

As she lay, her arms stretched out to the sides as if she were giving the earth a hug, she had a feeling of expansion, as if she were diffusing, spreading out into the atmosphere and into the ground. She once again felt the detached presence, the one that had come to her after she drank the potion that had led her here. This time, she took comfort in its presence. It was a bubble of cool detachment in the sea of warmth and comfort in which she swam. As before, she knew the presence as one without friendliness, but also without animosity.

As she let her waning awareness focus on the presence, she saw that she had made a mistake. It was not one presence, but two. As if two people were standing side by side, very close. Close friends, comfortable in each other's nearness. One of them was justice personified, pure white, unable to do wrong. The other had a heart of blackness, but not evil. Dark, but not quite demonic.

Methods. She knew this was what separated the two. They both were dispassionate and would work towards a goal with equal amounts of fervor, but one used methods that most people would consider just, while the other was far harsher in her choices. How she knew this she did not know.

* * *

Kiba walked along, Hinata beside him, as they made their way from the Inuzuka Clan compound to the meeting point where Kurenai and Shino would undoubtedly be waiting. He glanced at her warily out of the corner of his eyes. She had been the paragon of normal at the morning meal they had shared with Hana and three other Inuzuka family members that happened to be around at the time. He realized with a start the he had never before invited her to his house, much less to eat.

_Why did I do that? _he wondered helplessly. His empathy had conspired against him. As they had walked along, leaving the impromptu campsite behind them, he had considered her circumstances. Kurenai's house was undoubtedly empty at this time, their sensei out doing whatever it was a Jounin did when not on missions or at home.

He knew Hinata knew this, and being a member of a close-knit clan, he knew how important his family-members were to him. He also knew how unhappy he would be if he were suddenly thrust out into the cold to fend for himself, as Hinata had been. He had looked into her eyes and saw what he thought was a bit of sadness and longing for a family that didn't want her. It had made him invite her over to have the morning meal with his family, as opposed to eating whatever she could find in Kurenai's apartment, all alone.

As the meal had dragged on, he had found himself wishing she would be her enigmatic self, as opposed to her present personality. His family members were beginning to drop their wariness around her, and consider her a normal person. His hackles rose at the slightly unkind thought. A part of him had wanted to warn them, but how? Anything he said would come off as rude. He had been forced to sit and eat as if nothing were wrong, watching as Hinata smiled and shyly conversed with his family members.

His thoughts were jarred back to the present as they entered an empty patch of the usually-wooded rolling hills surrounding Konoha proper. The small clearing was dominated by three pillars of wood. It would be unwise to assume that these were the same three pillars to which Team Seven had been tied. In fact, only in their minds had Team Eight even been tied to the three logs. It had been Hinata who had first broken free of the illusion Kurenai had put on the three ninjas.

_Free yourself from the logs, and you will show me that you are ninjas,_ the woman had said. Despite the power of her eyes, it had taken Hinata some time to realize that none of them were tied to the logs at all. She had stepped forward, dropping her hands, and Kiba's surprised expression had been priceless. Shino had frowned, or at least one would assume so by the way his eyebrows drew down. With his bugs, he soon discovered the same truth, and he stepped away from the pillar and its illusory restraints. Kurenai had given her pupils a warm smile at their success.

"_Come, let's go and eat," _she had said. Kiba had looked at his two team-mates, each of them showing their satisfaction in their own way. He nodded, smiled, and stepped forward to follow them. Or rather, he tried to. Snarling, he strained against the ropes that he still felt holding him. _"Hey!"_ he had yelled after them. _"What about me? Hey! Hey...!"_

"Sensei," Hinata smiled politely. Kiba's mind shifted back to the present. One side of Kurenai's mouth twitched upwards at Hinata's normal appearance and actions. It was obvious to Kiba that the woman saw full well how Hinata had changed personalities again. She was undoubtedly itching to ask him questions, find out what he knew, and yet it went against her moral code to come out in the open with her curiosity, since what he had done was technically spying on a team-mate.

_And it's not like I found out much,_ he admitted with a sigh. The conniving part of him pondered how long he could draw out her curiosity.

"Hinata, Shino," the woman began. "...congratulations on your victory."

Shino nodded, and Hinata blushed.

"The two of you should train more diligently than ever," she continued. "...and Kiba," she looked at her wayward pupil, who turned on his puppy-dog eyes, hoping they would buy his way out of her disappointment at his loss. "Don't do that, Kiba," she said with a sad smile, and the boy turned away in embarrassment. "You should train hard as well. This was only one chuunin exam of many."

* * *

Hinata came awake with a sharp inhalation, alarm thrilling through her body. She was no longer on her stomach. She was on her back, one arm laid across her stomach, and other laying on the ground palm facing the sky. The wind played with her hair, brushing through its short strands as if someone were slowly running their fingers through it, enjoying its feel.

A chill gripped her when she realized her error. She felt no wind on her face or body, so what was moving through her hair? She was afraid to open her eyes, wondering what she would find. It felt as if darkness were surrounding her, embracing her with its smothering affection. Overcoming her hesitation, she opened her eyes. Her vision cleared, and she gasped aloud, turning over and pushing herself into a sitting position.

_Myself. _She had seen herself, or so it had appeared. The phantom was gone now, dissipated when she opened her eyes. She stared intently at the place the entity had occupied before disappearing. Tendrils of darkness rapidly vanished, as ethereal as the presence had been. Presence singular. This time there had been only one.

She closed here eyes, bringing to mind the fleeting image she had seen after opening them before. A face, hers, with her same hairstyle. Like Hinata, the girl had been naked. It had been like looking into a mirror, except for one small important difference. The apparition's eyes, which like Hinata's should have been white, had a heart of blackness. It was as if there were a covering of thin white gauze over midnight black eyes.


	4. Naruto

Chapter 4

Beta-read by AATTrueGGamer

Sakura walked down a wooded path leading to the place where Team Seven was to train that day. She couldn't help but glance furtively at her orange-clad companion, trying to puzzle out his recent change of attitude. She still had trouble pinning it down, and she doubted anyone but Sasuke or Kakashi would recognize it. A chill crawled its way up her spine, and she fought to identify its source. Certainly not the extroverted ninja beside her, everything he did was always in the open. But things were different about him as of late. Subtle things. He was a bit quieter, for one. She glanced at his eyes, which were slightly more thoughtful than was usual for the brash thickheaded genin. Maybe not so outwardly brash the last couple of days.

_He hasn't been fawning over me like he usually does._ The realization startled her, making her cheeks burn. Naruto happened to glance over.

"Something wrong, Sakura-chan?"

"N-No!" Anger turned the blush into a harsh red.

"Then why've you been staring at me the whole way here?" he 'hmphed' under his breath, his usual quick temper flaring. It dissipated just as fast, a new thought winding it way through his mind. "-or have you been noticing that I'm getting buff from workin' out...?" He flexed a bit, giving her what he obviously thought was a killer grin.

"Heck no!" she backpedaled furiously, then paused, knowing that it was at least a good thing that he was training. She didn't want to discourage him.

"Then what is it?" His patented 'confused' look was clearly evident. "You seem tense, or somethin'."

"No...! -umm..." She narrowed her eyes, battling against the burn she felt on her face. "You haven't been following me around, asking me out like you always do. Thank God," she hastened to add.

"...aah." His smile was kind, almost sad. It wasn't a side he showed often, and she stared openly. He suddenly turned, dropped to a knee, and took her right hand in its own.

"Will you go on a date with me?"

She was so shocked that the seriousness of his actions froze her for a moment, before she caught herself and jerked her hand away from his.

"No!" She rubbed the hand unconsciously as he stood back up, his face showing the usual hurt mixed with determination not to give up. "I mean, if you've got time to ask me out, why not train a little more... for your next fight."

"See?" he said, no longer facing her as they walked, as if she had proved some point with her action. "Besides, you were the one who brought it up."

_Has he given up on me then?_ For some reason she felt equal parts sadness and relief.

"-aah, don't worry," Naruto said, inadvertently busting her bubble and at the same time rekindling the weird hidden little happiness she got from watching him try to win her heart. "I won't give up. Besides, that guy doesn't know what he's passing up." The boy's eyes took on a bitter edge, anger evident in his tone. "He doesn't deserve you, Sakura-chan. If not me, you could at least do better than that guy."

Before Sakura could think up a suitable retort for the suddenly-serious Naruto, 'that guy' came into view. Or rather they came into his view, walking into the otherwise-unmarked clearing.

"He's late again, isn't he?" Sasuke muttered darkly. "-feh..."

Neither of them had to answer that. Kakashi was always late.

* * *

Looking around as if for the first time at the rose garden surrounding her, Hinata's nose twitched. Somehow, she had missed the smell of the garden during the first part of her visit. It was hard to see how, with how strong it was, or maybe that by itself was the reason. It was overpowering enough to nearly drive her to her knees, and for a few seconds all she could do was stand there, trembling, as her eyes watered. Even here at the edge of the garden, she was completely cloaked in the aural scent-cloud, which undoubtedly stretched far beyond the physical confines of the location of the bushes themselves. She knew there was no way she could escape, even though it was obvious that the other villagers never smelled anything out of the ordinary whenever they passed by. Even so, she knew that she herself would continue smelling it even if she left the yellow haze that ringed the perimeter. Having no way to escape, all she could do was try to bear it.

After an interminable length of time, she could feel herself becoming numb to the overpowering scent-collage. Her eyesight cleared, and she wiped the wetness from her cheeks, releasing a shuddering breath. Now that she was beginning to get used to it, she felt more than ever that the smells were far more complex than a random mixing of rose-bush aromas. It was almost like a language, or like reading a book of unknown and fascinating knowledge. The rich and vibrant collation of scents were telling her a story, one that she couldn't shut out.

She gasped, this time actually falling to her knees as her strength gave way under the torrent of memories. Pain spiked through her temples, and she brought her hands to the side of her head, closing her eyes as scenes and knowledge flowed over her like a wave. Drowning in a dark storm-tossed sea of a life she couldn't remember, she longed for the blissful ignorance she had enjoyed even one day earlier.

* * *

After giving Sakura special instructions, Kakashi took Sasuke aside for a few minutes. The sullen boy emerged from the trees with a smirk on his face as he passed Naruto.

"Later, dobe," he said as he passed.

"Hmph!" Naruto frowned at the boy's back.

"Naruto."

The boy turned at his sensei's words.

"Ah, so now after you've given them their instructions, you'll train me, right?" His usual unshakable optimism was present in force.

"Haha! Not quite..." The jounin's eyes were upside-down U's at his student's antics.

He began walking, and Naruto ran to catch up.

"I knew it!" the boy exclaimed accusingly. "You're going to pass me off to someone else while you go train Sasuke, right? Right...?"

The man sweated, speeding up a bit to avoid further criticism. Naruto stewed inwardly as he followed. It was instances like this that had led him to where he was now. Of course he didn't directly blame Kakashi for how he was, the man was too similar to Sasuke. He didn't care so much that the man wanted to spend most of his time personally training the Uchiha, if only he would get a suitable substitute for Naruto. That was unlikely, though, considering the past. His anger was dashed when he saw Iruka walking towards them.

"Iruka-sensei...!" Naruto's face broke into a relieved smile at his trusted mentor. It was said, by Itachi actually, that every man has a weakness. It just so happened that Iruka was his. Just as long as it wasn't Ebisu, or any of the other teachers that had tried to hold him back, things would be fine. If Iruka was the teacher Kakashi had promised, he'd have to re-evaluate everything that he had thought about...

Iruka smiled and walked by.

"-haha! He's not your teacher, Naruto," the ash-haired man replied, blithely and unknowingly sealing a bunch of fates. "There's your teacher." He pointed, and Naruto followed his finger, immediately flying into a rage. Ebisu.

"What??" He sputtered impotently for a few moments. "I can beat _that_ guy even with my perv-" The special jounin had suddenly crossed the distance to Naruto's side and covered his mouth, preventing himself from being embarrassed.

"I'm sure what Naruto _meant_ to say," Ebisu replied with a little disarming laugh, "-was that he'd be honored to have me train him!" He smiled winningly at Kakashi.

"...yeah, right..." The man looked a bit embarrassed, knowing he'd caught a whiff of something that had happened between the two of them in the past. "Well, I'm off!" Kakashi saluted casually, shunshin-ing away in a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto alone with a most annoyed Ebisu. As Ebisu berated him, his anger simmered back to life.

_That's it! They all die! This pervert first..._ It took a few seconds for him to regain control of his anger, and his logic. First of all, he couldn't kill the guy without setting off a chain of events that would fore him to act whether he was ready or not. And of course it was useless to punish the whole village for Ebisu's personality, but the man himself just had to be taught a lesson. As they walked along, he tuned the man's annoying voice out, going over the various carefully-laid traps and defenses he had built into the city over the course of the past years.

_Too messy,_ he decided, eying an awning they had just passed. More fluted instructions from the prissy jounin. _Too violent._ They had just passed the corner of a building, and he eyed it fondly. But such a trap would draw too much attention. _Not violent enough,_ he thought as they passed a weeping willow with a low fence around it. _Nope, nope, nope... definitely nope._ He continued ruling out his various works as they passed them on the way to wherever the man was leading him. It had gotten so much easier to do his work when, a year ago, he had inadvertently come across information leading him to devise a fantastically complex plot that eventually allowed him to gain access for a short time to a certain scroll in a certain Hokage's special hiding place from which he learned Kage Bunshin. He had managed to learn but one more technique from that scroll before he had to return it, covertly of course, all a part of the plot so that no one would ever suspect.

He had made more progress in the past year than he had in the previous years combined. After all, one boy could only do so much. But when you could multiply yourself... well.

"Now...!" Ebisu's voice jarred Naruto, and he looked around, noticing that the jounin had stopped, and so decided to pay at least a token amount of attention to the man.

_Who knows, I may be able to pick up something in the middle of all the crap he's spewing._

His musings were dashed when he recognized their whereabouts.

"Hey!" he shouted accusingly, horror morphing his angry features. "Why're we at the hot-springs?? I swear, if this is another of your perver-" The man clapped his hand over the boy's mouth, looking around desperately to see if anyone had overheard.

"Remove the hand, or lose it," Naruto mumbled, eyes fierce. The man removed his hand, wiping it fastidiously on his shirt.

"Now, if you had let me finish," Ebisu said rather fussily, "I would have told you that I've done my research on you." Naruto eyed the man quickly, searching for any hint of trouble, but he relaxed a moment later. The man was just being grandiose. He obviously didn't know of Naruto's extracurricular activities. "If you follow my instructions precisely, you'll become a far more powerful ninja than you are now."

Naruto listened with half an ear, trying to pick out the important parts while also thinking about his upcoming plans.

* * *

Hinata came to herself, sprawled face-down on the cool grass. Someone(thing?) was again running their fingers languidly through her hair. She alternated between terror and a kind of twisted curiosity as she lay there trembling, and finally the fingers left her hair, laughter tinkling through the cloying silence of the garden. Not quite silence, since she could hear the faint burbling of a brook, water splashing over stones. Had the laughter been real, or had it merely been the tinkling of water over earth and rocks? Her fear grew, until she finally looked up in desperation, smoothing out her hair and suppressing a shiver.

She looked around in alarm, knowing that she wasn't where she had fallen before. Now she was completely surrounded by the flowering bushes, and the yellow haze was only distantly visible. She was nearly a third of the way into the garden, now thoroughly trapped in the center of a mass of scent, chakra, and power.

_It's alive._ The entire garden was a living entity, she knew that now, wondering only briefly where the knowledge came from. The garden had talked to her, reminding her of a life she knew nothing of. Her life. The new knowledge did not bring comfort. Before, she had been happy in the linear life she had always known, waking up, training, enjoying herself with the friends she knew, and her team-mates.

The life the garden had presented to her was not nearly so neat and tidy. Fits and flashes of places she had been, of conversations she had had, it was all coming back to her, but not all at once, and not fully. Like a dream, she would remember parts of a conversation, but when she tried to pin down precisely where the conversation had taken place, so that she could gain more perspective, it would all vanish like a wisp of smoke in the breeze. She knew the conversations and people were real, but she couldn't quite grasp them.

Perhaps it would have been more bearable if it had all been somewhat linear, but none of it came in order. A conversation here, an extremely vivid memory of a particular location there, some of it fresh, most of it cloaked with the feel of something done years ago. She focused on the practical part of her new knowledge, the part that had nothing to do with time and its vagaries.

This place was the key to her hidden power, and there were things she had to do while she was here, tending to several of the plants, gathering the ingredients for her various potions, and most importantly, preparing for when she would next come to this place. Each visit had to be carefully planned out, or disaster would strike. She considered all the people she knew, people who would be unwittingly put in danger if she accidentally revealed her secrets to them.

There was a specific timing to be followed, a time when it would be alright to reveal her status, and what she knew, a time when she would be prepared for the responsibilities such actions would bring. She most certainly was not ready now.

_So why am I being given this knowledge?_ She knew it was abnormal, that usually the garden would whisper some secret to her, perhaps teach her some new facet concerning the preparation of her potions, or perhaps show her some way to enhance her techniques. She had never before been subjected to such a barrage of memories, thoughts that were obviously hers, and yet alien.

Almost she had a complete grasp on this alternate life she had apparently lived. With a monumental effort, she managed to fit most of the half-memories into the holes of her waking life. So often in her life, she would simply zone out, or lose consciousness, and later awake either in her bed, or perhaps on a bench somewhere in Konoha. Once or twice she had awoken in a strange place, and had taken several weeks to make her way back to familiar lands.

With a jarring pain her concentration slipped, and the entire conglomeration shattered like plate glass dropped from a height. Electric agony shot through her head as if tendrils of dancing electricity were illuminating different periods of her life, erasing parts of them even as they jumbled it all up into a hopeless mess. The pain wasn't real, she knew that, since it was all in her head, but that only made it worse. With nothing physical to restrain it, the pain became more and more harsh, each time increasing to beyond where she thought she could bear it, only to expand her awareness and further increase. It was so bad she could not even utter a sound, until soothing blackness finally came for her, along with a sense of sadness.

_It was too soon,_ a voice seemed to whisper into her mind. _Too soon, too soon..._

It was obvious she had just been judged and found wanting in some way, even though now should have been her time. She should have been able to grasp her heritage, what she had trained for in secret these past years. She had failed, though, she felt that. And so she was left there in the garden, a broken husk of a person, left with what few broken shards of her life she had been able to keep hold of.

The glow around her faded, rose bushes disappearing, merging into ordinary foliage. She looked around, but the wonders that had previously surrounded her had been replaced by the ordinary forest that everyone else in Konoha saw when they passed this way. She strained, trying to catch the scent of the garden so that she could ride the wings of knowledge once more, but it was gone. Frustrated tears gathered at the edges of her eyes as sleep came at last.

* * *

"Hey! Hey...!" Naruto tried in vain to get the attention of the crazy old man that was dancing about, hopping on one foot on top of the giant toad he had summoned.

_How in the world did I run into a hermit even more perverted than my own 'sensei'?_ The man hopped lightly to the ground, and the toad vanished.

"Buzz off, kid!" the man made a shooing motion with his hand. "You'll attract attention!" He turned and sauntered back over to the fence that had been built in the vain hope of trying to hold back the male population of Konoha from viewing the scantily-clad bodies of whatever kunoichi happened to be gracing this particular hot-springs with their presence. Naruto looked from the unconscious Ebisu back to the white-haired man who had done the deed.

"You took out my sensei, so you'll have to teach me!" Naruto declared confidently.

"Get real..." the man didn't even budge from where he stared through a convenient knothole in the fence.

"...hmph." The dark brooding gaze he wore now was almost never seen by the general public. It disappeared rather quickly as the situation laid itself out in his mind, along with a solution. It was rather obvious, in the end. The man himself had declared that he was basically at Naruto's mercy not thirty seconds ago. Forming the seal for Kage-bunshin, he grew by thirty feet or so. Or rather, six clones appeared on top of him, standing on one another's shoulders. "Hey!" the top one yelled loudly. "We got a pervert here! Come look at the pervert-"

Jiraiya covered the distance between them in an instant, and all the clones popped in puffs of smoke, leaving the real Naruto caught, the man's hands around his throat, fear of discovery in his eyes. He grabbed the boy and with several leaps took them both to relative safety.

"Tell you what, kid," he said, his arm protectively around Naruto's shoulder. "I'll make you a deal." Naruto listened intently, betraying none of this beyond his usual excited look of compete stupidity.

* * *

_This guy's powerful, no denying that,_ Naruto thought, watching as the perverted hermit drooled, his eyes glued to the spectacle Naruto was putting on for him. After finding out just how powerful, Naruto had already covertly sent an army of clones to halt all his machinations, summoning them when he had summoned the clones he had brought to convince the perverted old man to teach him. Something like this was too good to pass up, even if he had to temporarily halt his plans for the conversion of Konoha and its citizens into something he'd be proud to defend.

So far, the ten henge'd clones, currently sporting bodies that were near-succubus-level in their hotness, had slowly removed nearly every stitch of clothing covering their alluring forms, reducing Jiraiya to a pool or quivering flesh and drool. Naruto shuddered. It was one thing to defeat Ebisu, but this was getting out of hand. Feeling a bit dirty, he subtly nodded to one of the clones, who winked at him.

The three beauties nearest to Jiraiya slunk over, one taking one arm, the other threading her arm through his, and the third taking his giggling chin in her petite hand. Her perfectly decorated lips inched closer to Jiraiya's face, and Naruto shut his eyes, dreading what would happen when the clones were banished and their knowledge was integrated with his. Fortunately for his sanity, Jiraiya chose that moment to break, waving a hand and bursting all the clones with a powerful chakra pulse.

"I give!" he squeaked, getting his voice and breath back. It took quite a few seconds before he was capable of proper speech.

"Alright, kid, I'll admit you've got good taste, and quite a bit of potential-"

"-and you're nothing but a pervert!" Naruto exclaimed, one hand on his hip, the other pointing a finger accusingly as the man wiped the perspiration from his forehead with a handkerchief. He immediately dropped the piece of cloth.

"You're wrong," he said defensively.

"Oh come on," Naruto said disbelievingly as Jiraiya drew himself up.

"I'm a _super pervert,_" he said, cutting Naruto's surprised exclamation off, waggling his fingers as he made a rather lewd face.

"-forget it, no level of training is worth this." Naruto waved a hand tiredly, turning to trudge away.

"Don't be like that, kid!" The man was by his side instantly. "Look, let's forget what just happened, and I'll take over your training."

Naruto looked at him distrustingly, but it wasn't like he had any teachers lining up to help him.

* * *

Despite her shock, the first thing Hinata did now that she was back in the real world was check on Naruto. Spreading the circle of her vision, she gasped in shock.

_They're gone. All his plans are gone._ She desperately searched, trying to verify the knowledge. _No, not gone. Dormant..._ All his machinations had been put on hold, at nearly the instant they would have been activated. Now, if he ever did decide to activate them, she would have no warning. Stumbling to her feet, she ran off into the forest, her steps carrying her like a shadow, fast and fleeting.

Her fractured memory eventually took her to the place where she had camped, and where Kiba had awoken her. Almost as if remembering another life, she remembered being awoken by Kiba, having breakfast with him, and eventually going to her team meeting. She was simultaneously here, at her impromptu campsite, and also in front of Kurenai, surrounded by her team-mates. The duality nearly gave her a headache, until she remembered something else. Flashing off back into the forest, she eventually came to another place that sparked a memory. One of awakening in the night, and seeing a yellow light shining into the sky.

Trees surrounded her, but this time they were ordinary, no longer bearers of secrets. Stepping carefully, she found the exact spot, putting her feet where she had awoken. She closed her eyes, trying to bring back the magic of that night, but here in the daylight, it was just another nameless section of the woods.

_Not true,_ something berated her. The soft voice immediately went silent, but her hope was aroused. At least she wasn't completely alone. Perhaps something had remained behind to guide her. Looking to the left, her eyes found the spot where she had first seen the unearthly glow, earlier the previous night. She could see nothing now, and it frustrated her. She knew without a doubt that if she traveled in that direction she would find nothing but blank forest. Or perhaps death, for disturbing the peace of a garden that had kicked her out. The sudden sense of loss nearly brought her to tears again, but she breathed deeply, calming herself. It would do no good to collapse on the ground and cry.

The ground.

She looked down, opening her vision once more.

_Yes._ The root system was still there, in some kind of stasis. As if it were waiting for something. She searched through her broken memories, nearly crying out with relief when she found that she still retained the knowledge of this particular aspect of herself. Forming her hands into a seal, she closed her eyes and concentrated. Her hands blurred through more seals, ending with a familiar set: Kawarimi.

Reaching out and feeling the signature of her other-self, she traded places with it, matching her posture to it. Had any traveler been in that particular section of forest that day at that time and witnessed what she had done, all they would have seen was a poof of smoke that cleared to show a wild white rose bush where she had once stood.

* * *

Hinata opened her eyes to see a very puzzled Kurenai. She knew her expression was undoubtedly pained, the sorrow evident on her features. She had lost quite a bit of herself, but enough remained that she knew what she had lost. And enough remained so that she could perhaps fight her way back to at least a semblance of what she once was. And she had no way to tell her teacher that. There was no one she could turn to, really. No one except...

_Lihua-sensei!_

How had she forgotten her teacher so thoroughly? She breathed deeply, ignoring the confused stares of those around her as she desperately strengthened the memory. Lihua-sensei, the one who had always been there, teaching her about the garden, and how to adapt it to her own skill-set, and the techniques she knew.

Lihua-sensei, who was only accessible from the garden itself, as far as she knew. Sorrow dragged her back down. The garden was closed to her for now. At least until the next few days. The potion that opened her senses and allowed her to visit the garden was particularly dangerous, and she could not attempt such a journey for at least half a week. And who knew what such a journey might bring, especially with how the garden had abruptly thrown her out just now? The thought of making another journey to the garden brought a visceral fear to the center of her stomach. She knew it would be some time before she would ever have the courage to make another attempt, certainly longer than half a week.

If only there was another way. She would have to think, and dream, on this further.

_But there's no time!_

Naruto might activate his traps at any moment. And why had the boy deactivated them in the first place? With a guilty start, she realized she had stopped referring to him as 'Naruto-sama.' Something about the knowledge she had received in the garden had changed her permanently, removing the safety-net she had always enjoyed. She would never be able to look at the world the same way she once had. She still greatly admired him, but that wonderful feeling of worship she had always enjoyed when she thought of him was no longer there.

Before she could go back to that happy place, she had to find her sensei, her real sensei, and piece her life back together. It was the only way.


	5. Lihua sensei

Chapter 5

Beta-read by AATTrueGGamer

Hinata sat on a park bench somewhere in Konoha. This much she knew because of the architecture. Her eyes kept watering, causing her vision of the buildings around her to shimmer. Queasiness gripped her stomach, making her breathe shallowly for a few moments.

_Lihua-sensei._ This was her favorite bench. Had been. No, still was. Even if she had not seen the woman for months, that was no indication that she had moved on, abandoning Hinata for whatever reason. The queasiness returned for a moment, disappearing just a suddenly, leaving her panting for breath. The woman's power obviously remained, even if she herself was not present. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine the woman was sitting beside her, as she had often done. Power surrounded her, enough to upset her stomach and distort her vision. So she did close her eyes, feeling the flows of chakra, as sensual as they were familiar.

"_Dreaming is the key, always remember that Hinata."_ The remembered words were near-audible. So strong did she feel her sensei's presence, that the familiar fear crawled its way around her stomach, and up her spine. Lihua was by no means imposing, but when she entered a room, her aura dominated it, no matter who was present.

"_Dreams, dreams... although just saying that isn't enough." _Hinata smiled, let her mind provide her with an audience. She had so often sat and talked with Lihua that she could make up an entire lecture, even if she couldn't remember the woman's teachings directly. She once again despaired ever truly becoming whole again, after that disastrous visit to the garden.

"_What is awareness? What is it really, Hinata?_ She wondered whether or not it was wise to answer her inner dialog. It was one thing to want to see sensei again, but her mind was one big unknown to her. It was entirely possible that there were hidden dangers, traps, things that might be unlocked by whatever inner dialog she was taking part in. If some hidden part of her deemed that she was ready for the knowledge, when she really was not, it could be as disastrous as when she was thrown out of the garden.

"Well?"

She jumped physically at the word, soft as it was. Someone had undoubtedly sat down, perhaps to see what was wrong with her, why she was sitting there with her eyes closed. It was obviously not really Lihua that was beside her-

"Hinata." Someone took her chin and forced her to look to her left. Someone, obviously not Lihua. It couldn't be Lihua. She finally managed to snap her eyes open, breaking out of her paralysis. Long black hair flowing down out of sight behind her back. A white kimono that was so spartan it might have been worn by a samurai. A somewhat angular face, though beautifully proportioned. But it was the eyes that assured her of her salvation, and her doom. Bright green eyes so full of inner life it hurt to look at them.

"Hinata, this isn't a force-feeding session." The woman's eyes sparkled with suppressed laughter as she reached up and closed Hinata's mouth, which had fallen open. "I can't teach you if you aren't willing to put forth a modicum of effort." She turned away, looking into the distance, then shifted, as if preparing to get up and walk away.

"No, sensei!" she reached forward suddenly, taking Lihua's hand. The woman paused, looking at her curiously. Hinata considered the solid feel of the woman's hand in hers. She had half expected her hand to pass through empty air, so sure she was that the woman had to be a mirage. But it didn't matter. Whether the woman was real, or just a dream, this was the first she had seen of her in months. She had to at least find out something. Which meant she had to answer the woman's question. Her stomach fluttered again, reminding her just who it was she had touched so suddenly. She pulled her hands back, trying not to bring attention to her actions. This seemed to amuse Lihua, but she did not settle back down. She was still leaned forward, as if she was about to leave at any moment. Hinata couldn't seem to catch her breath as she tried to flail her brain for an answer. It was hard enough to stay with her teacher when she had her wits fully about her, and right now was not one of those times. After the shock of seeing her sensei in the flesh, she had even forgotten completely what the woman had just said.

"I- I don't..." Awareness. That was what they had been talking about. "What's... awareness?"

Lihua nodded, though Hinata could see just how much she was fighting to contain her laughter. "Yes, though I believe I asked _you_ that," she reminded her struggling pupil.

"-ah, um..." It was simply beyond her. What was awareness? Hinata was lost on that point. "I don't know," she finally admitted. "The longer I'm around you, the less I know what's really happening." She nearly stopped, as Lihua's face lost its laughter, and she took on a thoughtful expression. "You... do things to me," she finally managed to say. "You do things, and I can't think."

"Good!" Hinata nearly lost her composure at her sensei's smile. She had expected a rebuke. "Though, while it's true to say I do things to you, it's more correct to say that you don't _want _to think. What I do would help you, if you let it." Hinata didn't know what else to say. She just waited, her frightened attention fully on her teacher, knowing that if she lost concentration and missed something at this point, it was all over.

Lihua looked her up and down, and Hinata had to suppress a shiver. A touch on her wrist made her look down. The woman had taken her right hand, turning it over once, then turned it palm up again, gazing intently at it. She traced a finger down Hinata's wrist to the center of her palm, her touch feather-light. Even though the woman's movements seemed nonsensical, Hinata couldn't help but think she was doing something to her again.

"You're ready for your final exercise," Lihua said, her voice soft but confident. "Soon, you will be fully on your own, but I believe you'll do fine." She looked up to Hinata's eyes, but Hinata didn't know what to say. She certainly didn't feel ready, no matter what the woman said. She trusted the woman implicitly, even if she did fear her just as strongly, but she couldn't help thinking that her teacher might be making a mistake. Of course she dare not say such a thing, and she instantly suppressed the thought, almost semi-seriously wondering if the woman had the ability to mind-read.

"Awareness," Lihua said, and Hinata once again hung on her every word. "The ancient practitioners of our line learned many secrets of awareness, secret practices that allowed them to pry open the mystery of being aware. Of course this was their doom," she said matter-of-factly, as if discussing nothing more important than the weather. "Part of their knowledge came from eating power plants, as I've had you do," she said, looking intently at Hinata, as if she were looking for some sign that only she would see. "Once they ingested the plants, and saw what effects they had, it was only a matter of time before they began to analyze their experiences, and try to replicate and fine-tune them as best as possible." Which had led to the potions Hinata had learned to make, obviously.

"How do you know about this?" Something prompted Hinata to ask this question. "Did your teacher tell you about it, like you're telling me?" It was one thing to consider that the stories had been passed down from whoever these ancient practitioners were, so that Lihua would know about them, but something about the woman's tone suggested she had a more intimate knowledge than what could be conveyed by mere stories.

"No," Lihua answered frankly. "I know, because I have seen it."

"Seen... what? How?" That was not what Hinata was expected to hear.

"I focused my sight on that point in time, and so I know everything that took place."

"Your... sight? That's impossible!" Hinata's mind whirled as she tried to understand.

"Impossible?" Lihua snorted. "Perhaps for you, and everyone you know, but not for me."

"So, you mean you saw everything? Even details?"

Lihua actually laughed aloud at that.

"I didn't scry, or use fortune-telling, if that's what you're asking. Yes," she said, answering Hinata's question more directly. "Even details. Although it's more a kind of subtle knowing, than actual sight," she said, waving away Hinata's confused questions. "More importantly, what kind of people do you think can see as I see? Surely you don't think I'm the only one in the world who can do this."

Hinata shut her mouth numbly, all questions gone.

"Well, maybe I am one of the few remaining in the world today who can see clearly," Lihua admitted, "But this was not so in the distant past. In ancient times, there were many who could foresee. The people in the distant past who learned to see were employed in specific lines of work. Healers, storytellers, dancers, those who prepared food and drink. Those lines of work fostered specific wisdom that made them different from average people." She paused a moment, perhaps waiting to see if Hinata would ask anything, or perhaps simply giving her time to understand. "These people became extremely proficient, to the point that as the number of seers increased, they became obsessed with what they saw, to the point of forgetting everything else."

Hinata nearly asked why that would be a problem, but she couldn't open her mouth, mesmerized as she was by the story.

"They were overbalanced," Lihua explained, either intentionally or inadvertently answering the question. "They focused completely on seeing and lost their wisdom, becoming undirected, unconnected from the real world." She looked intently at Hinata. "If you foresee in a vision that an enemy is about to strike, but you don't do anything because you're so fascinated by what you're foreseeing, you're just as defenseless as one who can't foresee at all."

The revelation startled her to wakefulness.

Hinata blinked, fear gripping her as she looked at surroundings that were unfamiliar. The room was dark, and she still sat on a bench, but was Lihua still there? With a monumental effort, she twitched her head a bit, looking to her left. The spot was empty. This brought her as much relief as is did sadness. With this relief came awareness. She was in her room in Kurenai's apartment, sitting on a bench pushed up against a wall. The futon before her was rumpled, the covers twisted and wadded at the foot of the mattress. She must have sleepwalked to the bench at some point in the night.

The dream had been so vivid. Even though the details were fading, she could still remember every word of the conversation. As if she had really lived it.

In a flash of insight, she realized that she had._ Not a dream. That was a memory._ It solidified in her mind as she thought about it, excitement banishing the sleepiness that had begun to over take her again. It was early in the morning, just after midnight, but she had somehow retrieved a part of her life that she thought was gone forever. If that memory was still there, what about the rest of her life?

She walked back to her futon, pulling the covers up and closing her eyes, desperately willing sleep to come for her. The sooner she got to sleep, the sooner she might remember something else.

* * *

Hinata walked along the quiet forest path, immersing herself in the comforting silence that surrounded her. It gave her a sense of comfort that was lost to her whenever she considered her situation. It had been two days since the dream that had fundamentally changed her outlook on her situation. Had that dream been a fluke? Within a few short weeks she would have to take part in the next section of the chuunin exams, her next fight. In her current state she had no confidence at all in her abilities to stand toe to toe with any of the remaining fighters who had advanced so far.

Everything she had done previously had been in preparation for her fight against Neji. She had assumed that her teaching at the hands of the garden would have progressed as usual. Had that happened, she would undoubtedly have been more than able to handle herself in the tournament. The problem would have been trying not to kill whoever she was up against, rather than trying to win. But in her fractured state, she was unbelievably weak. What techniques she still had were no longer internalized. She had to concentrate, and even then it was an iffy thing. She certainly couldn't use them in the midst of a fight.

She paused, gathered chakra and formed her hands into a seal. Carefully going through the required hand positions, she narrowed her eyes and concentrated. The air seemed to waver, but she could feel her strength fading. Just as she was about to give up, there was a poof, and she was facing herself, her simulacrum's hands in the same seal hers were in. Her relief did not keep her from sighing with frustration. Her clone had what might have been a sympathetic look in its face, the face that was a mirror of hers.

"What do I do?" she murmured idly, knowing that her clone would not have much more knowledge than she.

"Do what you can," the clone whispered, disappearing as Hinata released the seal, and her concentration. Somewhere in her garden, she knew a rose bush had just reappeared, now that she had released it back to its normal state.

Even though the thing she had summoned was not like a regular shadow clone, even with its special circumstances, as long as she was a shadow of her former self, it would be the same. But it was reassuring that the garden still allowed her to use her techniques, even if she could not use them very well.

She continued walking, her thoughts traversing paths as familiar as the ones her feet now walked. After a few minutes, she was surprised to find herself at her impromptu campsite, the place where the whole mess had started several days ago. The place she had taken the potion, and lost most of her life.

She once again looked out towards the place where she had seen the glowing cylinder of light. A sense of hopelessness pushed her down, for she knew that it was all over. Her chance to be a chuunin, her chance to convince Naruto that she was worth his time, even her chance to see Lihua again. She was a failure, and the woman would doubtless renounce her when she saw what a mess her pupil had made.

Just as she was about to turn away, her thoughts forlorn, there was a kind of flash. The sky seemed to darken for just a moment, and she saw the hazy yellow glow, the same sight she had seen a few days ago. She stared, then blinked, and then everything returned to normal. She almost turned to flee, thinking perhaps that her garden was displeased with how she had returned so soon after being thrown out. Nothing was more frightening than the garden when it was displeased. Well, except for Lihua, but that went without saying.

She certainly had no desire to do anything that might cause the garden to fracture her even further, or perhaps kill her out of spite. Once or twice the past few days she had considered taking another vial and forcing the garden to decide once and for all to either take her back or kill her, but her good sense had won out. There were things worse than death, that much she had learned, and remembered, from what little she remembered of her time with Lihua-sensei. It would be a disaster to try to force the garden to do anything.

Even if she ignored that small wise voice, one thing she could not ignore was that the potion used to get to the garden was greatly affected by her mental state. Even if no permanent damage occurred in her attempt to use the potion to get back to the garden, there was no way the experience would have been good. Not as she was now. Still, what about what she had just seen?

She blinked once, turned away, then looked back suddenly, testing for illusion in the way Lihua had taught her. It was one of the few things that fully remained with her. Everything was solid, though, which was reassuring. Had things changed yet again, she would have been forced to give up and go back. If the garden was so upset that it was actively discouraging her, there was no point in sticking around so close, within its reach.

Almost as an afterthought, she set off towards where the haze had appeared. She knew without a doubt that she would not be able to penetrate the garden in her wakeful state, and her brief test had reassured her that it was safe, so she allowed her curiosity to draw her closer. If nothing else, perhaps she would remember a bit more as she walked.

* * *

The trees whispered soothingly around her. It was nice to just walk, even if no memory had suddenly jumped out and presented itself to her, as she had hoped. For a moment she considered just continuing to walk, and never returning to Kurenai's apartment. She had survival skills, both those taught to her as a ninja, and those taught to her by Lihua. She did not have to go back. Her father would probably not even care, since he had Hanabi as a backup heiress. Of course Kurenai would search for her, and would probably convince the Hokage to send out rescue parties, but as good as it felt to have Kurenai care for her, the woman wasn't her father. Or her mother, who was dead. She would have given so much to have parents who cared for her. So much.

Her eyes happened to glance at a bush as she walked, and she paused for a moment. It was a bush with white flowers. _A wild rose bush,_ she realized. Delicate red trim graced the ends of most of the small flowers, their buds just having begun to open. The bush wasn't in full bloom, but she could appreciate its beauty just the same.

As she gazed at it, mesmerized in the moment, it seemed to move, branches swaying in the breeze. Or not, since there was no breeze. This idea did not startle her, like she knew it should have. The branches writhed, and for a moment she detected a complete chakra system, fully visible to her byakugan. Like the plant was a person.

Then it was. Branches had become limbs, body, and head. She turned to flee, but the woman reached out and caught her arm. She looked back, eyes wide with terror.

"What are you doing?" The woman's familiar voice pierced the vale of fear, and suddenly she knew who it was.

"Lihua-sensei!" She fell into the bemused woman's arms, nearly sobbing with relief.

"No, I'm Chunhua, remember?" The question seemed to bring the memory of what the woman was talking about.

"Oh, right..." she wiped the wetness away from the edges of her eyes, almost laughing at how pitiful she must look to the woman. Clone. Whatever she was. Lihua and Chunhua might as well have been identical twins, if viewed side by side. And if neither of them were moving or talking. Only their actions and personalities differentiated them. She had tried in vain to distinguish them apart with her byakugan, and had failed. For all physical purposes, the woman could not have been a clone. Shadow clones didn't bleed. They also didn't take damage well.

Of course, the clone she had summoned minutes ago was more solid, more substantial than a shadow clone, it had to be in order to be able to use the Jyuuken. That one thing differentiated her from the rest of her clan, who were limited to shadow clones, which could not use Jyuuken at all, it being too strenuous on their shadow-bodies. But even her clones were not real enough to bleed, so Chunhua couldn't be something like that. The only thing Hinata would accept was that she was some kind of clone, but on a level she just couldn't grasp yet.

"Sorry, I forgot..." she said, wishing she knew for sure just what the thing before her really was.

Chunhua frowned delicately, her eyes dancing with laughter.

"Well, that's not right. How would you like it if I looked at _you_ as if you were a clone, or some kind of monster?"

"No, I didn't mean..." Hinata trailed off, blushing.

Chunhua burst out laughing, and Hinata was forced to wait in embarrassment until the woman got her breath back.

"Don't worry about it, you and I are more alike than you realize," she finally said, reaching out and tweaking Hinata's nose, her eyes twinkling.

"What... what do you..."

"Come," Chunhua said, ignoring the girl's questions. "I'll take you to Lihua." She turned and set off into the forest, her every movement graceful. Hinata fell silent and followed, knowing it was no use to argue.


	6. Chunhua's Tale

Chapter 6

Beta-read by AATTrueGGamer

The meeting with her sensei's simulacrum had been so abrupt that she had not had time to think on it, even in the minutes afterwards as she followed the woman up into the trees and they set off. But as she kept pace with Chunhua's fleeting form, it slowly sank in.

_I'm going to meet Lihua-sensei._ Anticipation warred with anxiety. Was it a good or a bad thing? She had to know of Hinata's failure. Chunhua had seemed upbeat, but then she always did. That same maddening smile graced her face whether she was training, fighting, or torturing Hinata with some important fact or technique she needed to learn. There would be no discerning what would happen until the moment it did.

Half an hour later, Chunhua abruptly slowed down, dropping silently into a small clearing in an otherwise unmarked section of the forest. Hinata touched down beside her, taking in the surroundings. Lihua stood at the far edge of the clearing, crouched over a lone flower growing amongst the trees, touching it almost lovingly as her mouth moved. She was too far away to hear anything distinct. Without so much as a glance, she abruptly stood and glided over to where her simulacrum and her pupil stood.

"Well?" Chunhua asked cryptically. Lihua waggled her eyebrows, a grin splitting her oval face.

"Oh yeah!"

As she waited for the two most powerful people she knew to finish whatever inside joke or conversation they were having, Hinata tried not to show the melange of emotions raging inside her. At the moment it was enough just to be in their presence, for however long she was permitted. Sharing the company of her two teachers was the only time she truly felt at home. It only saddened her to think she might lose them due to her own horrible mistake in the garden.

The two of them conversed with each other, almost in monosyllables, and then without warning, they set off, the direction seemingly random. Hinata struggled to keep up, drawing heavily on her inner stamina, barely managing to at least keep in sight of her two teachers. She wondered despairingly if all of this was some kind of setup. Perhaps they already knew about her problems, and would use her failure to keep up with them as further reason to stop teaching her. Or knowing Chunhua, they had simply forgotten she was even there. It was maddening to think that perhaps they had forgotten, then remembered, looked around for her, not seen her, and decided that she simply wasn't worth teaching.

"_Ah, if she can't keep up with us, you probably shouldn't teach her that new technique. She probably couldn't handle it anyway, with that lack of stamina. Besides, it won't _really_ hurt her in the long run not to know that one..."_

"_You've foreseen that?"_

"_Oh indeed I have."_

Hinata could easily see Chunhua having that conversation with Lihua, the two of them laughing all the while. The two of them had never let Hinata truly hurt herself, but it was surprising what one could live through. Plus there was always that first time. She could just see her two teachers standing over her remains.

"_...tch."_

"_Yeah, a waste, isn't it?"_

"_I pick the apprentice next time."_

Hinata just knew the two of them had forgotten about her. Even if they hadn't, one of them was likely at any time to turn around and ask quite innocently why she was following. After gales of laughter they would eventually teach her something, but only after she had been thoroughly stripped of her ego. Frustrated tears were gathering at the edges of her eyes when Lihua looked back and the two of them slowed imperceptibly allowing her to catch up to shouting distance.

"How's your training coming along?"

Hinata's stomach felt like a lead weight. Such a simple little question. No poking fun at her, no humiliation, not even a hint of punishment. Even though she heard the lightheartedness in Lihua's voice, she knew how serious the situation was. The question was undoubtedly a test. Should she admit to what had happened? That was the obvious answer to the test, which made her leery of it. Yet she knew of no other way that wouldn't sound like she was trying to cover up the truth.

"The garden," she finally began, determined to get everything out in the open. "The garden, it..."

The two slowed further, until they were side by side with Hinata.

"She didn't ask about the garden," Chunhua interrupted, her voice light and deadly. "She asked about _you._"

"Oh, um..." For some reason she felt a profound relief that she wouldn't have to admit things just yet. And it was Chunhua who had let her out of it. Why did that send a shiver down her spine? And what else could she tell about her personal training, it wasn't like there was anything else...

"I can keep my Byakugan activated almost indefinitely now," she exclaimed, wondering how she had forgotten such an important breakthrough. "I even used the power of the garden itself to augment..." her words died at Lihua's somber expression. The two had landed on a branch up ahead, and she touched down beside them. It was obvious to her that she was in deep trouble, but she was at a loss as to why.

"But didn't you tell me how I should be learning to see more-"

"No!" Lihua put her hands on Hinata's shoulders, softening her expression when she saw the terror on the girl's face. "Now you'll always be looking, but never seeing." She looked off into the distance, shaking her head. "...and you used the garden to do this."

"But, I don't..."

"No." She put a finger on the girl's lips, silencing her. "You decided on this course of action, you'll have to be the one to figure the way out."

The girl deactivated her Byakugan.

"That, at least, is a start," Lihua said with a sad smile, and the two set off again. Hinata stood there for a moment, confused as to what had just happened, and then leaped after them. She would have to think later, there was no time now. Ten minutes later, her two teachers stopped in what was not even a clearing, really just a small place between the trees they were traveling through. They sat down and took out rations, passing them between the two of them and Hinata. Chunhua eventually took pity on her confused expression.

"You should never make a heavy decision on an empty stomach."

This remark did nothing to ease the girl's anxiety.

After eating in silence for a few moments, Lihua reached over, touching her hand.

"Always remember," she said, repeating the words Hinata knew so well. "Dreaming is the key. It's a gateway to other worlds, other levels of awareness." Hinata was about to ask a question about the last part when she felt a sharp stinging sensation where Lihua was touching her. She nearly cried out, when suddenly everything went blurry for a moment, and she looked around, fighting past the haze in her mind. For some reason, the sun appeared to have jumped, instantly traveling further down the sky towards an eventual sunset. As she wondered about this, Lihua spoke.

"Remember to practice what I've taught you concerning dreaming."

Hinata was about to protest that she didn't remember any such teaching when the two of them got up suddenly, leaping to a tree branch. Hinata followed, stomach fluttering. She was always felt joyful and free when around Lihua, at least when she wasn't scared out of her mind, but at the same time,

"Sensei, I feel like I'm missing something." Her mouth twitched. They would undoubtedly demean her for that statement, since she was always having to ask questions whenever she was in their presence. Yet despite what they did to her, they were always patient in answering them. "I feel sad, and I don't know why."

"That's normal, you're just beginning to understand," Lihua said, coming to rest on a branch for a moment, facing Hinata with a serious expression. "You wouldn't be complete without sadness and longing. Without sadness, there is no kindness, no sobriety. Wisdom without kindness and knowledge without sobriety are useless." She appeared to think for a moment, and then jumped to the ground, waiting for Chunhua and Hinata to follow. "This is the right time, and we are nearly at the right place." She looked to her right, focusing on something that Hinata couldn't seem to see no matter how hard she looked.

"There's a personal journey you'll have to make, very soon." Lihua looked back at Hinata, the seriousness gone from her expression. This did nothing to reassure her, of course.

"Did you do something like this, sensei?"

"Of course we took the journey," Chunhua answered, "All warriors from our line take such a journey."

"Perhaps Chunhua will tell you about her journey," Lihua said, her eyes twinkling as she glanced at her simulacrum.

"Perhaps," Chunhua said in a bored way.

"Please, tell me," Hinata begged. She knew her teachers were teasing her again, but in the end it no longer mattered. They were the only ones present.

"Well, when I went on my journey, at the end if it, I met myself."

"What do you mean?" Chunhua's rather short and abrupt answer wasn't quite what Hinata had expected.

"It means that if you make your journey, you too will find yourself."

"So, what happened when you found yourself?" Hinata asked.

"It was a powerful jolt," Chunhua answered, after taking a few moments to get her thoughts in order. "Never would I have imagined it was going to be like that. It was something, something... like nothing I can tell." Her expressiveness drew Hinata into the story. "It was like reaching out to a mirror, and touching my own reflection. Everything was foggy, and the world began to spin, and I thought I was dying. Suddenly I was standing on solid ground again, alive and in one piece, my thoughts no longer in disarray. I was myself! I knew that I had succeeded. It was an indescribable feeling." She paused, but Hinata was too wrapped up in the story to have any questions.

"I looked around to find where I was, but the surroundings were unfamiliar. I assumed that I had been hallucinating, and had traveled somewhere far away through mysterious methods. I oriented myself, and set out walking in the direction I thought my home village was. After traveling for a while, I met a group of people who asked where I was going. They invited me to join them, said that they had food, and that they were on their way to that particular village themselves, and that it was just a few hours away. Their friendliness gave them away though, especially when they asked me to join them, so I didn't."

"Who were they?" Hinata asked.

"They were people," Chunhua answered, "but they weren't real."

"They were like apparitions," Lihua explained, "or ghosts."

"After walking for over a day, I became more confident that I was going in the right direction to get to my village," Chunhua continued. "I met two women leading a donkey, and one of them bid me a good afternoon, then they walked by without another glance. I slowed, looking back, thinking to myself that they seemed real, and then I went back after them. They stood by their load, as if protecting it from me. I explained to them that I was lost and looking for my village. They answered that I was going in the wrong direction, and that my village was over the mountains, several days away. They turned to go on their way, and I went after them, asking them to let me join them. We walked together for a while, until one of them got out a bundle of food and offered it to me. At that point I froze, because there was something terribly strange in the way she offered me food. My body felt frightened, and so I jumped back and began to run away. They both insisted that I would die if I wandered around alone, and tried to coax me to stay with them. Their pleas were very haunting, so I ran away with all my might," Chunhua said matter-of-factly.

"I kept on traveling, knowing I was on the right path back to my village and that these were ghosts trying to lure me out of my way. By late afternoon I came to a valley that I seemed to recognize. It was somehow familiar. I thought that I had been there before, but if that were so, I was actually south of the village. I began to look for landmarks to properly orient myself when I saw a small child with a basket half-full of berries she was picking. She was perhaps seven, and was dressed as I had been dressed at that age. In fact, the girl reminded me of myself when I was young. I decided to call out to her, but the girl jumped and hid, looking back around a rock. I liked her," Chunhua said.

"She seemed to be afraid, yet still found time to pick up her basket before making her escape. We talked for a long time, and I eventually told the girl that I was lost and looking for my village. I asked the name of the place where we were, and the girl confirmed it was the place I thought it was. Of course this made me happy, since I was no longer lost." Chunhua paused, her eyes wistful.

"I wondered on the power of my journey to find myself, and how it could take me so far from my village in the blink of an eye. I thanked the girl and began to walk away. She casually came out of her hiding place with her basket and began to walk down an almost unnoticeable trail. The trail seemed to lead down into the valley. I called out to the girl one final time, and this time the she did not hide. When I came close, though, she moved and hid in the bushes beside the trail. I commended the girl on her cautiousness and asked her some questions. I asked where the trail lead. Down, she answered. I asked how many houses were down there, and she answered 'just one.' I asked the girl where the other houses were, and she pointed towards the other side of the valley with indifference, the way all children that age do, then she began to go down the trail. 'Wait,' I called to her. 'I'm very tired and hungry. Could you take me to your family?'

'I have no family,' the girl answered, and that jolted me. Something in her voice made me hesitate. The girl noticed my hesitation, and stopped, turning to face me. 'There's nobody at my house,' she said. 'My uncle is gone and his wife went to the fields. There is plenty of food. Plenty. Come with me.'

"I almost felt sad, since the girl was also a phantom. The tone of her voice and her eagerness had betrayed her. The ghosts were out there to get me, but I wasn't afraid. I was still numb from finding myself. Other ghosts came after that, but none of them were able to bend my will, and then they quit bothering me altogether." Chunhua was quiet for a while.

"What happened after that?" Hinata asked.

"I kept on walking," Chunhua answered. It seemed that she had finished her tale and there was nothing she wanted to add.

"Did any of the ghosts look like the people from your village?"

"No, they were just people," Chunhua answered.

"But earlier you said they were ghosts..."

"I said they were no longer real," Chunhua corrected her. "After finding myself, nothing seemed real any more."

Hinata had a hard time believing the story was over.

"So what next?" she asked, confusion evident on her face.

"Next?" Chunhua wondered.

The way her two teachers' eyes glittered almost made her swallow the question she was about to ask

"I mean, did you find your village?" she finally asked. Both women broke into laughter, and Hinata had to wait for them to catch their breath.

"So that's what you meant by 'next'," Lihua remarked. "Let's put it this way. There is not yet an end to Chunhua's story, because she is still on her way back to her village!" This shocked Hinata into silence. Chunhua gave her a piercing gaze, and then turned her head to look into the distance, towards the south.

"I will never reach my village." Her voice was firm but soft, almost a murmur. "Yet in my feelings... in my feelings sometimes I think I'm just one step from reaching it. Yet I never will. As I journey, I don't even find the familiar landmarks I used to know. Nothing is any longer the same." Lihua and Chunhua looked at each other, and there was something so sad about their look. "In my journey to my home village, I find only ghostly travelers."

Hinata looked at Lihua, not understanding what Chunhua had meant.

"Everyone Chunhua finds on her way to her village is only an ephemeral being," Lihua explained. "Take you for instance. You are a ghost. Your feelings and your eagerness are those of people. That's why she says that she encounters only ghostly travelers on her journey."

"Your journey isn't real, then," Hinata said slowly, trying to put the whole tale into perspective.

"It is real," Chunhua interjected. "It is the travelers I meet who are not real." She nodded towards Lihua. "This is the only one who is real. The world is real only when I am with this one." Lihua smiled.

"Chunhua told you her story because she thinks that you have already begun to foresee things, and just don't remember. I keep telling her that you are weird, but that eventually you will gain the ability. At any rate, you too must find yourself. If you survive the shock, which I'm sure you will, since you're strong and have been living like a warrior, you will find yourself alive in an unknown land. Then, as is natural to all of us, the first thing you will want to do is start on your way back to your home, the Hidden Leaf village. But there will be no way for you to go back there. What you left there is lost forever. By then, of course, you will be a true warrior, but that's no help. At a time like that what's important to all of us is the fact that everything we love or hate or wish for has been left behind. Yet the feelings in your heart do not die or change, and you will start on your way back home even knowing that you will never reach it, knowing that no power on earth, not even death, will deliver you to the place, the things, and the people you loved. That's what Chunhua told you." The impact of the story hit Hinata suddenly and she began to link it with her own life.

"What about the people I care about?" She asked. "What would happen to them?"

"They would all be left behind," Lihua answered.

"But couldn't I take them with me?"

"No," Lihua answered, "you alone will travel into unknown worlds."

"But I could still take a ship or some other transport back to Leaf village, right?"

"Sure," Lihua answered, laughing. "You could go there, or to the Sand, or the Mist, or the Rock, or any number of places. What I'm trying to tell you is that finding yourself will change your idea of the world. That idea is everything, and when that changes, the world itself changes. In order to be a warrior, you must be passionate. A passionate warrior has earthly belongings and things dear to her – if nothing else, just the path she walks. What Chunhua told you in her story is precisely that she left her passion in her village: her home, her people, all the things she cared for. And now she wanders around in her feelings, and sometimes she almost reaches her home."

For an instant Hinata sensed a wave of agony and loneliness engulfing the three of them. She had a clear sensation that at that moment Chunhua's memory of the story was about to overcome her, and that the woman was on the verge of weeping. Hinata quickly moved her eyes away as tears slipped down her cheeks in sympathy. Her teacher's passion, her supreme loneliness made her cry.

She looked up at Chunhua, who was gazing back. Her teacher's eyes were clear and peaceful. The two of them had summoned a wave of overwhelming nostalgia, and when they seemed to be on the verge of being overwhelmed and collapsing into tears, they had held back the tidal wave. For an instant Hinata thought that she truly did have a foreseeing. She saw the loneliness of a warrior as a gigantic wave which had been frozen in front of her, held back by the invisible wall of Chunhua's metaphorical story. Her sadness was so overwhelming that she felt euphoric. She embraced them both, first one, then the other. Chunhua smiled and hugged her back. Lihua also stood and gently put her hand on Hinata's shoulder.

"We are going to leave you here," she said. "Do what you think is proper. Walk to the center of the garden," She pointed into the dense foliage dotted with rose bushes. With a start, Hinata realized that they were standing only a hundred feet from the edge of her garden, except the yellow haze seemed to be missing.

"The center," Hinata echoed Lihua's words. Try as she might, she could not bring to mind an exact mental image of the center of the garden, though she had passed near it countless times. The garden seemed more than ever to be an ominous thing, something definitely not hers, unfamiliar.

"If you don't feel that this is your time yet, don't keep your appointment with yourself," Lihua went on. "Nothing is gained by forcing the issue. If you want to survive, you must be absolutely sure of yourself." With these words, Lihua walked away without looking back at Hinata, but Chunhua turned a couple of times and urged her with a wink and a movement of her head to go on into the garden. Hinata watched them until they disappeared amongst the dense trees and foliage.

They had started at the garden, Chunhua had taken her to Lihua, and somehow they had ended up back at the garden. And she had never found the chance to actually talk with the two of them about whether the garden would even accept her.

_It has to be another test._ Something told her that this time Lihua wouldn't be there if she messed up again. Test or not, she certainly was not ready to leave everything she knew behind. Or at the very least, she was not willing to leave Naruto behind. As she set off in the direction of Konoha, and Kurenai's apartment, she was reasonably confident she had done the right thing, but she couldn't help but wonder if she had thrown away her only true chance at improvement.


	7. First Level, Novice

A/N – ByLanternLight, your reasoned-out review gives me hope ;-p The idea you present is at least a part of the point I'm trying to make. Of course, the people who mention acid-trips are correct too. The main reason for that is that most of this story is from Hinata's perspective, and her perspective is skewed by her use of psychotropic plants

* * *

Chapter 7

Wind whispered through the trees as she walked through the forest, and falling leaves formed a temporary cloud that reminded Kurenai of her Genjutsu specialty. Trying unsuccessfully to banish the sleepiness that threatened to overtake her, she trudged onward. The woman had actually been losing sleep lately, and the cause of her travails was undoubtedly minutes away, on her way to their personal meeting.

_Just a few hand-gestures._ The thought wove its way through her tired mind as she walked. _A single burst of chakra and I could pull the secrets from her mind-_ Her eyebrow abruptly twitched as she seriously considered the tantalizing thought, then cut it off harshly. Leaves rained down on her shaking form, turned loose by her fist which had lashed into the tree beside her. Drawing a shaky breath, she gathered her usual reserve back from where it lay in pieces around her. At least her sleepiness had been banished.

_I can't believe I honestly considered that, even for a moment._ Using Genjutsu on a fellow Leaf Villager, and on top of that her own pupil, would be worse than just a gross violation of the fundamentals of trust. Never mind that she could undoubtedly get away with it, and probably even do it in such a way that Hinata would not even remember-

"-guh!" She gripped her head, desperately ejecting the thought. _What's wrong with me?_ She leaned against a tree for momentary support. _Why am I letting her get to me like this?_ Thinking back, she tried to catch the moment that Hinata had turned from ordinary Hyuuga into a bogeyman that now seemed to haunt Kurenai's thoughts almost constantly. Try as she might, she couldn't remember. It seemed that Hinata had always been a bit odd. Or at least the girl had been odd enough when Kurenai had first met her upon her entrance into the ninja academy.

_Could she really have had a hidden teacher even back then?_ It seemed so absurd that she nearly rejected it out of hand. But it was the only logical answer. Some hidden teacher was impressing her own psychosis on Hinata. _Wait. 'Her?'_ Of course this hidden teacher had to be female, Kurenai didn't even want to think about how unhealthy the situation would be if Hinata's hidden teacher was male.

In the distance Kurenai could see Hinata wander into view out of a stand of trees. The odd flutter in her stomach was now expected, as the girl approached. With a second glance, she noted that the girl seemed to look about as dejected as Kurenai felt. She had seen many Hinatas, every one of them unique in their weirdness, but she had never seen the girl so downcast.

"Sensei." She came to a stop in front of the leader of Team Eight, drawing herself up a bit, a trace of relief crossing her expression. It softened Kurenai's heart to see that no matter what else, she was someone Hinata could feel at ease with. She put a hand on Hinata's shoulder, the corner of her mouth twitching as she felt the girl's tension slowly ease away. The gratefulness in the girl's eyes was like an oasis in a desert, and Kurenai looked away for a moment, gazing into the fiery yellow-orange of the setting sun as it painted the sky with a brilliant collage of pastels. No matter what oddness lurked within Hinata, she was a human with all the frailties that implied. She let her unease melt away with the waning light of evening.

"How do you feel about your upcoming fight?" she asked, turning back to look at her pupil. After a few moments of silence, Hinata answered.

"I just don't know."

_Something's happened with her other training. That has to be it._ Kurenai suppressed the urge to push for details. The girl was obviously vulnerable right now, but if she took advantage of it, Hinata would likely remember later when things changed. Whatever she learned would not be worth it.

"Let's go over the other entrants." She sat down with her back against a tree nearly three feet in diamater, hugging her knees to her chest. She heard Hinata walk to the opposite side of the tree and sink down to the ground. "You could face any one of them, and you won't have the luxury of too much rest between fights since you don't know how long the other matches will be. Assuming you win the first match, of course." She let the suppressed chuckle make her tone light, and was surprised when Hinata actually did give a bit of a sad laugh. "Temari."

"She's the wind specialist," Hinata said, nearly making the statement into a question.

"Yes. It's tough to pin down from her short match with Tenten, but she looks to be medium to long-range, which clashes with your short-range fighting style. You'll need a plan to try to get close, and it won't be easy because she'll know you're a Hyuuga, and all that implies. Kankuro."

"He uses puppets, right?"

"Right."

"Hah." Another bemused chuckle. "Another one who might be trouble, since puppets don't have tenketsu points."

Kurenai's mouth twitched. Whatever was bothering Hinata wasn't affecting her skills of deduction.

"Sasuke," Kurenai muttered, making sure to keep her voice light. After an obvious pause, Hinata answered.

"Short to mid-range. But he's got strong fire techniques."

_To be expected of an Uchiha,_ Kurenai thought. Sasuke was the favorite of the tournament, not only because he was considered a genius, but his taijutsu skills were nothing to laugh at, even if the Hyuuga martial arts were considered to top-tier of the village. Hinata might have the edge hand-to-hand, but Sasuke undoubtedly bested her in ninjutsu, at least from what Kurenai saw. As for Genjutsu, only Kami knew, as it were.

Her sympathies went out to Hinata briefly before she pulled them back, keeping her teacher's mask firmly in place. There were quite a few Leaf ninjas competing for the title of Chuunin, and the ones that weren't from Leaf were vicious and strong from what Kurenai could see. It was a tough tournament comparatively speaking, and she knew it wasn't easy to go into a fight that might end in death, either for you or one of your comrades. Especially if it was by your own hands that they died. Hinata spoke abruptly,

"Not considering Sasuke, there's also Shino, and Naruto, how could I fight people I care about? Just for a title..."

Kurenai frowned at the obvious question. Hinata was not the first to think such things, since this had always been the way of things in Leaf Village. It spoke to how much one wanted the title Chuunin if one was willing to compete against one's peers for it.

"Respect," Kurenai said softly. "Would you go into battle under the leadership of one who was inferior to you?" Hinata didn't answer readily, so Kurenai continued. "And what better way to test leadership potential, and at the same time build up respect, than to show your skill in a tournament?" Neither of them spoke for a few minutes. "You don't truly know someone until you fight them. That's a very old saying, but it has a measure of truth." A moment later she was startled to feel Hinata's hand on top of hers.

"Thanks, sensei."

She turned to see Hinata's somewhat calmer expression, the former sadness gone. She gave her pupil a smile of encouragement, and they both stood, parting ways by mutual silent agreement. As she watched the Hyuuga heiress walk off into the forest with a noticeably lighter step, she couldn't help feeling that they had bonded more in that short moment of teaching than the entire past year.

_At least I was able to help her, in some way._ The last rays of sunlight faded to twilight in the distance, causing the forest shadows to elongate and deepen. _And just this once, I think she actually meant it when she called me 'sensei.'_ That thought gave her an illogically happy feeling, and she wondered about whatever her hidden counterpart was doing to put Hinata in such distress. Once more she considered going to the Hokage and mentioning her fears about this hidden teacher, and how she was affecting Hinata, but she quashed the idea instantly. She still had no hard proof, and Hinata seemed to be bearing up so far. For now there was no pressing need to disrupt things.

_I'll leave that to whoever this hidden sensei is. Whoever you are, know that it's not _me_ who's making Hinata's life so hard..._ She shook her head, clearing it of the sudden jealousy, made a hand-sign and vanished in a swirl of smoke.

* * *

Her steps sure and steady as she walked through the nameless forests on the outskirts of Konoha, Hinata no longer had to try to hide her discomfort. Kurenai had either knowingly or unknowingly lifted her spirits, even if her situation was still as hopeless.

_Not hopeless,_ she reminded herself. Her wishes and dreams were what had pushed her into despair, and while it had been hard, she had managed to free herself from their strangling grasp. Not that she had given up on wanting to be a Chuunin. She had simply accepted that whether it was now, or later, that was just the way of things. As Kurenai had lectured her on her relationships with others, she had finally realized something.

She had been waiting for the right chance to present itself so that she could approach Naruto, when in fact time was not the issue, but her readiness. Any time could be made into the right time if she felt in her heart that she was ready. With that realization, the future seemed to open up. No matter what happened, even if Naruto set off his plans before she felt ready to approach him, it wouldn't preclude her meeting him in the future. Things would undoubtedly change if he did so, but then things were always changing, even if she wasn't aware of it.

She sighed, fingering the glass vial she held, turning it over and over as she walked, her thoughts far from the section of the forest through which she traveled. Putting aside her worries concerning Naruto only opened the way for other problems. The upcoming fight would be tough whether or not she felt she had to win or not. Even discounting all else, if she became a Chuunin, she would be in a better position to approach Naruto whenever she decided to do so-

She caught herself before the self-deception could continue too far, shaking her head ruefully. Whether she was a Chuunin or not, Naruto would either accept her or not for who she was, not for her accomplishments. The last vestiges of despair drifted away, but it seemed to be pure irony that she felt the desire to advance even more strongly. Perhaps not so ironic.

_I want to advance for myself, and so I can be strong for those I care about._

The realization brought strength to her determination. She turned the vial over again, watching the pink liquid shift, minute bubbles swirling around in chaotic eddies. With her ninjitsu skills out of the picture, her only trump card was her potions, which would enhance the skills she did have. If she played things right, perhaps even her ninjitsu would become usable.

With just under two weeks remaining to test the appropriate dosage and formula, even going that route was an iffy thing, but it was her best bet. What she would gain in power, she would lack in control, but there was nothing to be done about that. In fact, the more she experimented with the potions, the easier things would be. Probably.

The problem was that by now she had acquired over a dozen recipes, and yet had only tested two of them. And the one she held now was twice the strength of the ones she had previously tried.

* * *

As he sat on a high tree branch watching the girl he was sworn to protect walk along the forest floor, Neji was of two minds. Though a part of him still railed against fate, and how she had tricked him out of his sure win, growing feelings of respect were bothering him lately. Or at least curiosity at what else Hinata might be hiding. And he could no longer deny the fact that she had played the fight out expertly, beating him with a trick so that she could keep her true strength hidden. Strength he knew she must have, to have pulled something like this off.

His previous attitude and actions towards her irked him now, he knew things would never be the same between them again after what she had done to him so openly, and what he had done to her in secret. It would be embarrassing, and downright demeaning for him to go to her now even though he had questions that needed answers. All he could do was follow her, looking for an opportunity... for what?

This he did not know, but Hinata was traveling steadily away from his position, so he stood and jumped to the next branch, waiting and keeping close watch. A slight distortion on the ground drew his white eyes. Veins bulged, revealing a sight that caused his lips to thin with anger. He leaped to the ground next to a startled Kiba, grabbing the boy's head and putting a hand over his mouth to stifle a startled yell.

"What exactly are you doing here?" he hissed. His near-empathic ability caught a mix of emotions from the boy that were startling in their strength. Frantic terror, anticipation at finally catching whatever Hinata was about to do, hope that Neji did not know he was surreptitiously watching Hinata.

"-oh! Um..."

"You're spying on a team-mate, Kiba!"

The boy wilted at Neji's accusation, almost immediately flaring into anger.

"You don't know what she's like! You're not on her team! You have no way of knowing just how-"

"No, I'm not on her team," Neji said derisively. "I'm only her clansman and protector." At this Kiba's eyes went hard.

"The protector from a clan that threw her out," he spat. Neji's eyes widened, then he caught movement in the distance. Hinata was rapidly disappearing into the distance, far faster than she should have been able to travel.

"-what...!" Neji's grip loosened in shock, and Kiba took advantage of the lapse, pulling loose in anger.

"See??" Kiba spoke hysterically, forgetting that Neji did not know much more than he had been able to glean from Kiba's expression and feeling. "She does something," his nose twitched as he caught a whiff of roses, the smell distant diffuse in the air. "-she _takes_ something, and, and she changes!" Shaking his head in anger and frustration he left Neji standing there in shock and leaped to a tree-branch in pursuit.

Neji watched him go, wishing he could follow. But his pride would not allow such an action, since it would mean he would have to demean himself to Kiba, whom he had just denigrated for spying on a team-mate.

* * *

Boundless energy seemed to come from her center, propelling her through the forest like a frightened deer.

_Obviously a potion of escape._ For now she retained her wits, though she felt them beginning to slip away. The twilight seemed to vanish, the dark gloom of the forest turning to a wan light as she ran, giving the surroundings a dream-like illumination. This kind of thing would not be so useful if she wanted to stay and fight, but it was good to know the effects.

Her Byakugan caught sight of Kiba once more, and her moroseness seemed to paint the landscape a deep blue, and then with a start she realized that everything indeed was taking on a subtle shading. The visual effects undoubtedly meant the potion had taken full effect. The green of tree-leaves became a light blue, the colors melting together as she considered her team-mate. He had been closely following her the past few days, either out of worry over her unusual actions, or out of curiosity. It wasn't that she wanted to keep things from her team-mate, but she simply had no choice. It went against her own wishes, which were to be open with others, but there was no helping it. The sudden desire to somehow be free from the situation was overwhelming. She was tired of hiding things, tired of trying to keep those around her in the dark. She knew it was the potion affecting her mind, enhancing certain emotions and thoughts, but it was a part of her just the same.

A familiar stream came into view ahead, and she leaped from a tree branch to the ground, hurried steps taking her to the water's edge. The smooth chime of water over stone whispered soothingly to her, promising escape and safety. Suddenly she was standing in the water, sinking to her knees as Kiba approached. Tiredness descended like a cloak, and oddly enough she felt no fear as she sank below the water. It seemed that her consciousness was spreading, flowing around and with the currents. A moment of disorientation was followed by the feeling of great speed, and then nothing.

Kiba's feet lightly tapped the ground at water's edge as he came to a halt, his eyes frantically scanning around for his team-mate, whom he had just seen moments before. She had knelt at the waters edge, and then, and then...

She wasn't there. He waded into the water, feeling around with his hands and feet, heedless of the noise and mess he was making, but she wasn't in the water either.

_What the hell...??_ His fears for her safety gave way to shock. Where could she have gone? He would have seen her if she had tried to use shunshin, or any other rapid-movement technique while in the water. He sank to his knees, surprise giving way to fear. He focused on the water burbling around his hands and legs, trying to suppress the terror that always came whenever Hinata presented him with some mystery he couldn't explain.

His hand brushed something. He lifted the sodden cloth. A heavy gray jacket, now waterlogged. Hinata's jacket.

* * *

Images and scenes of places familiar and distant blurred across her vision, dreamlike and vague. The Hyuuga compound. When she had still been living there, a woman had come to visit her, a woman she would later know as Lihua. Over the next few years the woman had taught her in secret, while visiting her at the clan compound in the open.

It had seemed dangerous and illogical, but the woman did not seem to understand such things. In any case, though there had been questions, no one had suspected that Hinata was her pupil. Mainly because Lihua was actually nobility, or close to it in the Fire country. She had the ear of the Daimyo, and that was close enough. Who she decided to spend time with, even if it was the young heiress of the Hyuuga clan, was her business, and she had no trouble telling that to anyone who questioned her. Then Neji had been assigned to teach her Jyuuken, and that had been the beginning of the end of her stay at the place that had always been home. Her thoughts drifted back to that time, and details were given form in her mind's eye, building a scene around her. Dream-like at first, soon it was just as detailed as waking reality.

Blue sky, abruptly transitioning to the off-white stone wall surrounding the Hyuuga compound. Trees and carefully manicured bushes and plants decorated the courtyard around her, and she sat on a low bench, a watchful Neji beside her at her right. She looked over at Lihua on her left, apprehension winding its way through her at Neji's presence. Lihua did not seem to notice, and in any case she never talked about their training when he was present. Instead, she either sat in silence, or regaled her protege with colorful tales of the imperial court. Whenever Neji got bored, he would leave, and they would train. Unless Lihua took the initiative, as she was apparently going to do this time, judging by the humorous twinkle in her eye.

"Come with me, Hinata." Lihua stood, casting a momentary glance toward Neji. The implication that he was not to follow was obvious, and it obviously stung the boy. Hinata stood, looking at Neji for a moment before turning to follow Lihua who was already walking away without a backward glance. Neji's face darkened, his mouth hardening to a line.

"You two are leaving because you don't want me to hear." Neji's voice held obvious anger, tinged with a bit of jealousy.

"That's exactly right," Lihua said lightly, not even stopping, and Neji's eyes widened. He had expected to either be ignored, or given some excuse. He had not expected to be told outright that his accusation was correct. Hinata looked back once more, catching the embarrassment and anger on the boy's face until they walked around the corner of a building and out of sight.

"You're worried," Lihua said, reading Hinata's apprehension. "Worried about what he'll think, about how he'll treat you..."

"-y-yes," Hinata admitted nervously. "I mean, he, he already-" she cut herself off, going red with embarrassment. She glanced hastily at Lihua, but the woman now seemed oblivious to her distress. There was a moment of silence, but the woman did not make further inquiry about what Neji might have done. It saddened Hinata, who knew that if she ever let slip what she had just said to her parents, or anyone else, they would have pursued the subject with tenacity until they had found out what had been done.

"Self importance is your greatest enemy," Lihua finally said, startling Hinata out of her thoughts. "Feeling offended, being affected by the deeds or misdeeds of those around you, all this is caused by self importance." Hinata had no idea what to say to this, and so Lihua continued. "Self importance requires that you spend most of your life offended or embarrassed by what others do. Without self importance, you are invulnerable." Her eyes became shiny, as if she were about to laugh, and then Hinata felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. She jumped, looking behind her to see Neji, his face furious.

"If you two have something to talk about, I should be present. I'm _supposed_ to be your protector," he said to Hinata. It was obvious he was using it as a reason to overhear whatever they were saying. He looked over at Lihua, and seemed to come back to his senses, realizing what he had just said to someone of her importance and position. The fire left his eyes, and Lihua seemed to be transfixed with inexpressible glee. The woman burst out laughing, causing Neji to cringe momentarily. He recovered his composure, and a bit of his anger.

"You have no right to laugh," he sputtered out, but this only caused Lihua to double over laughing. Neji just stood there, not knowing in the least how to handle the strange situation. Lihua gestured towards Hinata with her hands and tried several times to contain her giggles and speak, but was overcome by spasms of laughter each time. Finally she got up, still shaking with laughter, and walked away, barely able to stay on her feet. Hinata was mortified, and glanced over to where Neji had stood, but the boy was stomping off into the distance. In that instant she saw what was so hilarious to her mentor. She and Neji were horrendously alike in certain areas. They were both supremely self important, they just showed it differently. She showed it by taking everything personally and withdrawing into herself, while Neji was prone to take it out on others, at least when he was not using it as a motivation to push himself harder in training. Spontaneous tears came to her eyes as she saw with clarity just how much energy her self-absorption had taken from her, how much it required from her. She got up from the bench and ran after Lihua to tell her about her realization. As she stumbled over her words, her mentor's eyes shone with mischievousness and delight.

"...but what should I do about Neji?" she asked. The boy had run off, and who knew what he would say to others.

"Nothing," the woman answered. "Realizations are always personal, and his may not come for some time."

"Sensei, I don't know how to get rid of my self importance," Hinata admitted. The idea had seemed simple just a few moments earlier, but as the euphoria of her realization faded, so too went her sudden confidence.

"To do that takes a stupendous effort and great will," Lihua stressed, pausing a moment to be sure her student was listening closely. "One of the first concerns of a warrior is freeing up her personal energy. You must live a life of control and discipline, not wasting a second. Have a heart of forbearance, and always notice the timing of things. But," she said, her eyes twinkling, "the most important ingredient you can have is someone like Neji."

"-what?" Hinata blinked in confusion.

"Neji holds the power of life and death over you, and so he is an excellent teacher on how to relinquish self importance. Under his tutelage you'll go far!" Lihua was looking closely at Hinata, obviously biting her lip to keep her laughter suppressed.

"-but, but that doesn't," Hinata suddenly fell silent, seeing a part of her sensei's point. To survive in the face of Neji's abuse and embarrassed anger would make her stronger. Or it would break her, but she decided to not think about that side of it.

"Nothing tempers the spirit like impossible-to-deal-with people in positions of power or equality," Lihua said, her hand light on Hinata's shoulder. Then she turned and walked away, leaving Hinata alone with her thoughts.

The scene began to lose its luster, jarring her thoughts, until it was like a matte painting, everything frozen and lifeless. After what seemed like ages but was probably no more than minutes, she saw a flash of movement. Another flash gave a hint of life to the world.

In the distance, something was moving underneath a tree. Someone. Dancing. With a blur and a sense of fast movement she found herself next to the tree, and the figure was twirling, pirouetting. It was herself, the same self who had been running fingers through her hair. She was the same as Hinata, except for eyes so dark they were pools of night. Or nightmares. Two dead spots on her face that appeared every time she twirled, like two dead suns, rising in the east and setting in the west. A sense of complete alienness assaulted her every time the eyes came into view, and relief only coming as the slow twirl continued, hiding the eyes for a moment. Only to come back again when the spin continued. The unnatural terror grew and fell as the figure spun, but it never fell as fast as it grew, but she couldn't move, couldn't look away.

Suddenly the figure's mouth was open the next time it came around, and words came out, though the seemed to come from all directions rather than just from where the girl spun.

"First Level, you are Novice,

Second Level, you are Adherent,

Third Level, you are Master,

Fourth Level, ..."

Every time she spun in a circle, she spoke a line, and always speaking when she was facing Hinata. All except the last part of the last line were clearly intelligible, but each time she spun, she started speaking just a little later, so that the last words of the fourth line could not be made out. To speak about terror at this point would be a non-issue. It would be more correct to speak in terms of the few moments when Hinata felt slightly _less_ fear. These moments were not a reprieve, instead all they did was accentuate just how strongly frightened she was the rest of the time.

"I..." she stopped when she found that her voice echoed all around just like the Other's. Yet despite the fear, despite the question of who this even was, she had problems that needed answers. "I'm 'Novice'?"

"Taking this potion, you are Novice," the Other said. Try as she might, Hinata could not tell even the slightest physical difference between her voice and the Other's, except for the chill that pervaded the air with the Other spoke.

"But, what's Adherent-" Her voice choked off, for this time she had spoke as the other Her had been turning towards her, and she saw the Other's mouth moving while she spoke. The Other's mouth clicked shut with hers, then moments later began speaking an answer to Hinata's partial question.

"Taking the next potion, you will be Adherent." Hinata's fright tripped up a notch when, for the first time, she happened to notice that her own mouth moved when the Other talked. Yet despite the horror of this new realization, the questions _had_ to be asked and answered.

"-and taking the potion after that..." Hinata began, feeling her stomach physically turn as the Other mimicked her mouth motions.

"-you become Master," the Other finished, and she felt her own mouth give the answer as well.

But the unfinished fourth line still gnawed at her. It had not been an accident that the Other, her?, the Other had shrouded the final words. Was it self protection, or was she meant to ask for the knowledge? She wavered, wondering whether to ask, wondering. After untold minutes, still wondering. She finally managed to gather enough inner strength to ask, but just as she opened her mouth to voice the question, the answer came out, of her mouth and the other's, though the way it echoed, there was no way to tell whither it came, where it went, or if it mattered.

"Fourth Level, you become me."


	8. The Voice of Seeing

The hot sun was beating down, making even the leaves of the trees surrounding her almost too dazzling to look at. Hinata did not care about this, however. It had been over a day since she had awoken naked at the edge of a river, nearly out of her mind with delirium. A kind old lady had helped her up, taken her to a small shack, and cared for her while she recovered.

Maybe it was an old lady. Throughout a feverish couple of days the old lady had shifted, changing from an unknown hag, to Kurenai, to Naruto, even to Lihua-sensei. None of this had done any more than flirt across her mental passageways, none of it had drawn the reactions it should have drawn. Of course this was normal for the strange mixtures she drank. No matter what she saw under their effects, it all looked so normal while she was looking at it. Not until days later, when she could think back with a clear mind, did the fear come.

She sank to her knees on the blessed ground, solid and real. Slowly she laid herself out flat, feeling the slight dampness of the warm grass tickle her face. She took a few strands between her fingers, rubbing them together, feeling the subtle scratching sensation when she rubbed the grass one way, and the smoothness when she rubbed it the other way.

The sun beat down on her, warming her and the ground around. Absentmindedly she reached into a hidden pocket, feeling the cold hard smoothness of a glass vial. It would take away the blessed realness around her. Or it might totally rip her mind to shreds.

She ignored that small doubt. As bad as the last few days had been, she had felt the inner strength, the core of discipline she had constructed over the years, and knew she could take more. It would be hard, it would feel like she was coming apart at the seams, but she could take it.

Had to take it. She would push herself to the very edge, to the bitter land of shadow where real and chaos mixed into sublime states that could only be hinted at by the languages known to man.

Earth pushed up beneath her, and the sky opened up above her, all of it real. Even the tendrils of strangeness had disappeared from her mind, sometime in the past several hours. It was hard to tell exactly when.

She was stable again, and she was wasting time. Slowly she sat up, looking around as if for the last time. She shook her head gently. This one was nothing. The vibrant pink liquid in the tube seemed to hum to itself softly. This one wasn't anything, really, compared to the next two.

Idly she flicked off the cork, then caught herself. Whether or not it was much, it had to be treated with respect. Her questing vision flashed out, but she saw no intruder. Or rather, no intruder she was looking for. Relaxing completely, she took the small vial in two hands, and slowly drank what was within.

It had a sweet taste, like a strong fruit juice, and she braced herself for the inevitably terrible aftertaste and distortions, but they didn't come. Cracking an eye open, she waited, but nothing. Frowning, she stared down at the small empty container in her hands.

Such a small thing, and so full of power. A droplet of pink remained in the vial, sparkling as it reflected the sun. Roiling, seething with potent chemicals, precursors, things that attached themselves to receptors in her brain, to molecules in her blood. Parasites that briefly took over other cells so they could multiply, until their raw quickly-burning power was used up, and released her back to normal reality.

Really, all that was needed was that one drop. Less than that. Even one molecule would be enough. A raw thrill ran through her at the possibilities. A smaller dose meant fewer side effects. The weakness, the disorientation, the horrible dryness of her throat during and after using the concoctions, all that could be disposed of.

Her mind worked furiously as she desperately tried to jot down everything that was pouring through her overtaxed brain. _Where did I get this parchment?_ Reams of it was spread before her, and she paused, the quill of her pen hovering, and untold knowledge passed through and out of her mind as she waited. Never mind, keep writing. Think later.

"What are you doing, Hinata-sama?" Neji's voice held only cautious curiosity, but her mind only heard the subtle sneer that she was used to. It grated on her nerves, and erased priceless information from her consciousness in the few seconds she used to look up at him. He was standing there in his loose-fitting shirt and pants, and the heel of his shoe was smudging part of the many papers scattered around her on the forest floor.

"Get off, Neji," she said, fearful even to touch the paper he was standing on. She might tear it, and its precious contents.

"Get-" he looked around. "Get off what?" he asked in confusion. Fear was distending his aura, subtly distorting his chakra system. No, not his chakra system, what was she seeing? She did not even notice with the bulging vessels around her eyes seemed to elongate, get thinner, and multiply. She stared at Neji, and he was suddenly a oblong ball of yellow, a haze that looked like a giant egg of light, writhing with streamers of energy. Energy that flowed into his yellow shell, and left it on the other side. The energy trapped him in reality, leaving him unable to see things as they truly were. It was pathetic, really.

At this point Hinata realized that she was not really 'seeing' the image, it was more like something was whispering in her ear. Around her was a maelstrom of streamers of energy, going in all directions, and at the same time in no direction. For one fantastic moment she was sure she finally understood the universe for what it was. Boundless flows of energy that everyone tapped into to one degree or another.

Neji was there, a glowing egg of light, but she could see the point of his awareness, and how small it was compared to his being as a whole. He was only barely aware of himself, his true self. Unaware of the half-dozen points of weakness in the dark luminescence that surrounded him. She opened her eyes, unaware she had closed them. Everything snapped back to the way it had been, trees, the sun, and Neji standing there, that confused look still on his face. It was beginning to dissolve into familiar anger. She could still imagine him as a massive ball of energy. In fact, when she concentrated, it was like she was seeing double, the yellow luminescent ball superimposed over his body, changing as he moved. It seemed to stretch over his entire form, extending several feet beyond his body in all directions.

He was standing there, and he wasn't even fully aware of himself. It would be like a person going to a tournament to fight, when he could only move one of his arms. Neji backed up, dropping into a Jyuuken stance. Always with that damned Jyuuken, flaunting his mastery of it.

"What are you doing, Neji?" She asked, no longer trying to hide the hurt and anger in her voice. She was tired of hiding her feelings.

"What am I doing, you ask?" He looked at her in amazement, backing up a step. Hinata paused, and finally took note of herself. She had also assumed a Jyuuken posture. He was reacting to her threat. But what threat was she to him? He was better in their family's fighting style. Her eyebrow twitched as Neji's back foot stepped onto one of her precious pages of notes. Irreplaceable notes, now that the knowledge had disappeared from her mind like the formless wind. Anger billowed up as she watched Neji unconsciously crumple and destroy the paper as he shifted to match her posture.

"I told you to stop!"

"Stop what-" Neji was cut off by the fury of Hinata's attack. He parried, and was surprised to find himself nearing his initial limits as she very nearly executed the first two sets of attacks for the Sixty-Four Palm Strike. _Impossible. She can't-!_ He drew chakra to himself, but not quickly enough to be able to parry the next flurry of eight strikes. With no other option, he whirled into the Heavenly Spin, completely wiping out her series of attacks.

He had no idea what he had done. He saw no paper, pieces flying as they were ripped to shreds by his defense. He had no idea what was going through the deranged mind of his temporarily insane ojou-sama, but he knew exactly what the sudden killer intent in her eyes meant. He also saw the attack she was about to make, and knew he could block it conventionally. Still. Taking no chances, he initiated another Absolute Defense the moment she struck. Or the moment he thought she struck.

One moment he was a veritable pyre of chakra as he sent a carefully-timed and controlled pulse to counteract her attack. The next moment he found himself smashing into a tree, the wind knocked out of him, his left arm throbbing with intense pain.

_She hit me before I could counter!_ But that was impossible. He had seen her with his own eyes, which he knew were better than hers. He had seen her attack, seen its power coming towards him, and he had sent out a pulse of chakra exactly equal to it. He remembered sending it out, watching the two converge, and then, and then...

She had somehow hit him. Yet her body hadn't moved, she had been in his vision the whole time. Everything around him had been meticulously in his vision. Of course his blind spot was back there, but it was his arm that felt like it was nearly fractured, not his back. She...

It was like her attack had hit him, as if he had sent out his own defense too late. But that was impossible, since he had clearly seen his defensive power go out to meet hers. The two had come together, and hers had not gone through his. In fact, it was like...

His defensive pulse had been about four and a half feet from his body when he had felt her chakra-filled palm hit him, as if it had hit him out there. Which was impossible. As impossible as she was now coming at him, eyes full of death. He stood, initiating another Heavenly Spin as she attacked. She was going for the exact same place she had hit last time. If she hit him like that again, he knew his arm would break, but he was no fool.

As impossible as it seemed, he accepted it, and he sent out a chakra pulse farther this time, intercepting her attack before it reached the point it had before. His hard grin of triumph only hid his inner confusion as she attacked three more times in under a second, forcing him to defend furiously.

It was immensely tiring to defend like this, to have to act as if any strike that came within a five foot radius of him was dangerous, but he had to assume that the impossible was reality. She had somehow hit something, nearly four and a half feet from his body, and it had hurt him badly. She was attacking other points now, and almost as a test, he allowed one of her hits to get through. Not to his body, he simply allowed it to get within four feet of him.

The shock nearly drove him to his knees. It felt like his entire right side was on fire for a few long seconds, but he managed to squint his eyes open to see Hinata, flushed with success, her eyes intense. Suddenly the light in her eyes went out, she stared blankly, and slumped to the ground.

He staggered over, still holding an arm over his throbbing chest, looking down at her in awe. He fell heavily to his knees by her side, and a crawling sensation nearly caused him to jerk away. He forced his hand over to her forehead, which was hot and dry. The air above her wavered, as if a kind of mist was seeping upwards, dissipating into the sky. Darkness was leaking out of her every pore, wisping into the air, clinging to the trees, curling towards him. He staggered to his feet, stumbling away blindly.

As he ran through the forest as best he could with his injuries, he couldn't help remembering the last thing he had seen. Her byakugan had been inactive. Thinking back, she had deactivated it after that first attack. Or something. He hadn't seen one, anyway. Her eyes had displayed none of the effects of an active blood-line limit.

Then how had she fought him so effectively?

* * *

Something cool pressed against her forehead, and Hinata nearly moaned, until she creaked open an eye and happened to see who was above her. She was lying on the forest floor, her head in Lihua's lap. The woman wrung out another cloth and replaced the one on Hinata's forehead.

"Sensei," she gasped, clearing her throat. "I saw-" Something. You. You helped me recover, after... what?

"I saw..." Neji. I don't know. What did I see? Was that really Neji?

"I-" what? "I saw." She didn't know what else to say.

"Yes," Lihua said with a smile. "Yes, you did. Rest, now."

Hinata did not know what to make of the current situation. Her sensei had never actually come out and congratulated her, or told her she was doing a good job.

"Rest." The figure laid another cloth on her forehead, but this time it was the Blackness. The black Her, the self with eyes of night. She tried to summon fear, but she was just too tired. She closed her eyes, letting the creepy-crawly sensation of terror wash through her, watching it idly, humorously.

_This is terror._ She inhaled, and let the pins and needles wash from her head down to her toes. Terror. Fear. They were just sensations, like pain and hunger. She knew the realization would stun her later, when she remembered, but she was just too tired now. She opened her eyes for a moment, letting herself get lost in the pools of darkness that were her/not her eyes.

She lay there and let herself minister to her, nurse her back to health.

* * *

"What's wrong with her?"

The masked white-clad doctor looked up towards Neji for a moment before looking back down at her patient. Although she didn't know Neji or any of the other Hyuugas personally, it looked like Neji's discipline was hanging together by a very thin veneer.

"When I find out something, I'll let you know," she finally murmured.

"You don't know anything-?" Neji's voice cut off as anther figure burst through the door.

"Hinata!" Kurenai was followed closely by the two ANBU assigned to the hospital. When she came to a stop, so did they, now unsure what to do. "Hinata..." Neji looked back towards Hinata's teacher.

"Do you know anything about this?" he asked, and despite his effort, a hint of blame was in his voice. Kurenai apparently did not even notice.

"Where did you find her?" the jounin asked, and Neji blinked in surprise. It was an obvious question, but he had simply overlooked it. Poison was an obvious possibility, and her whereabouts might give a clue about what she had ingested.

"I was just about to ask that," the doctor said, turning to face the two of them.

"I'll show you." Neji turned to go, and Kurenai followed.

Ten minutes later, they set foot at the site where Hinata had fallen. Half an hour after that, the place was crawling with different specialists, including a Seal master. The man was very closely observing different parts of the ground, mumbling and frowning to himself. Neji and Kurenai watched until patience began to wear thin.

"What is it?" Neji finally asked, beginning to step forward. The man held up a frantic hand, stopping him in his tracks.

"Already too much has been lost, erased by footsteps," the man said carefully and meticulously. A chill ran down Neji's spine as he remembered Hinata telling him to 'get off' of whatever it was she thought he had been standing on.

"What do you mean?" he finally got out.

"You'll never understand," the man murmured, looking up at the Hyuuga in sympathy. "None of you will." A confused Neji looked back towards Kurenai, who was carefully observing the man, her expression blank. "Wonders are written here, but no one will ever know, now. It's like catching the edge of a conversation, maybe one out of every ten words." The man's expression slowly deteriorated. "Enough to know the importance, but so very little. Enough to know you'll never piece it back together." He slowly lowered himself back to the ground, and continued closely observing the ground.

After thirty seconds, Neji almost spoke, only to be cut off.

"Everyone should leave," the Seal master said, not even looking up. "Now."

* * *

"What did you see?"

Hinata blinked, confusion disappearing like a wisp of smoke. She was sitting on a bench in the middle of a courtyard in the middle of Konoha. Lihua's favorite bench. It was always odd, because no matter how busy this area was, no matter how many people were sitting or standing all around, whenever she and Lihua came here to sit, the bench was always empty. She was sitting here now, and Lihua was there on her left, like she always was.

"I saw Neji," she heard herself answer, and she remembered. "He was like a bubble of light, with strands of energy running through him. They came in one side of the bubble from all directions, and left the other side." Hinata might have expected to impress her teacher, but Lihua merely nodded.

"As beings of light, our awareness is continuously held by those strands of energy. We fool ourselves into thinking that those energetic lines are reality, and the information they give us becomes more important than the very basic fact that those strands mean."

"What fact?" Hinata wondered, slowly accepting that this really was Lihua, and was not the Blackness.

"That everything is energy," Lihua answered. "When you use the rose and its power, you gain access to more of the strands of energy that are always passing through you." Hinata found it hard to accept such an explanation. When she took her potions, it felt like she was accessing some vast knowledge out in the universe, but more importantly, if she accepted what her teacher was saying, everything she saw and experienced was a part of herself. Hinata look up and saw that Lihua was carefully watching her. Seeing Hinata's recognition, Lihua looked as if she was about to say something, then stopped.

"I don't understand," Hinata insisted, flailing her tired mind. "What do you-"

"Your concentration is waning," Lihua said calmly. "You should rest." She stood, taking Hinata's hand and pulling her to her feet. Hinata swayed on her feet, tiredness descending like a cloak. Standing seemed to accentuate things, and she had never felt so tired in her life. Her hand was limp in Lihua's as she let the woman lead her to a house that Hinata finally recognized as her teacher's house. Were she not so tired she would have instantly recognized Lihua's house. She barely felt herself being put into bed, and covers being put over her up to her chin.

Some time later she awoke with a start to find herself in a dark room lit only by a candle that sat on a low table. She blinked, and realized that Lihua was sitting there, looking at her. She got up, walked over and sat down, blinking dully. The last wisps of sleep left her as she saw a plate of food, Lihua saw her notice it, and reached out a hand, sliding it towards her with a rough scraping sound.

"Did someone bring this?" Hinata wondered idly. She supposed it was possible her teacher had cooked it while she had been asleep. Lihua smiled, and for some reason it terrified her. She was about to scream when the woman touched her hand, making her jump. She flinched at a sudden stinging sensation, and then everything changed.

Her awareness was suddenly brought to a higher level, and she remembered all that the woman had taught her. The sudden deluge of knowledge would have been frightening, if not for the fact that her mind seemed to have matured as well. It all made sense, and she looked at her teacher with a mixture of relief and anger, along with an acute sadness.

She was relieved, because she had come to think of her time in this state as being truly 'herself' and the time when she was away from Lihua as a period of delusion where she just wandered through life unaware. What both angered and saddened her was just how limited she was even now, having learned all she had learned.

"How can I remember all this now, and then forget it so easily when I'm not with you, sensei?" Lihua was looking at her, humor obvious in her expression. "Is it all just trapped in my mind somewhere?"

"It's not that simple," Lihua answered. "You can't remember because normal awareness can only sense a small part of a person's complete being. You can't remember because what you did in that state is trapped in parts of your being that you can't sense when you are in normal awareness. You only remember when you are in a heightened state, and are freely able to use those areas of your being." Hinata's confusion only seemed to amuse Lihua.

"I don't blame you for not understanding," the woman said with a smile. "Normally this is the point where an apprentice goes to pieces, when they find out that people don't see most of the world, and that even if they could, it would be incomprehensible." Lihua saw Hinata's face begin to cloud with emotion, and she shook her head sharply.

"When we talk like this, your concentration must be total," she said, and Hinata calmed down. "The practitioners from our line place great importance on unemotional realizations. Remember your previous realization, when you understood that you and Neji are alike in some ways?" Hinata nodded, embarrassed.

"That was merely an emotional outburst, not a true realization. Beware of those who weep with realization, because they realize nothing. Only those with sobriety and calm truly realize." She observed Hinata for a moment, until she was sure the girl understood. "When a person truly foresees, there is a voice in the ear telling them everything that's going on. If there is no voice, they are not foreseeing." Hinata nodded, excitement thrilling inside her. That was exactly what she had felt. For once, she knew exactly what her teacher was trying to explain. The woman's humorous expression wavered in the subtle light of the single candle, which flickered abruptly as the door to the house opened, then closed.

Hinata looked up, her heart skipping for a moment as she saw Lihua's simulacrum. The opening and closing of the door had revealed that it was actually morning outside, and that the windows of the house were all completely covered, which explained the darkness.

"How would you like to travel to a place where ancient seers used to gather?" Lihua asked, and Hinata looked back at her teacher, fear beginning to press its way back to the forefront.

"Oh, I don't know if she can take it," Chunhua murmured, her eyes twinkling. "Is she ready for something like this?"

Hinata looked back and forth between her two teachers, now terrified beyond belief. Chunhua abruptly grinned and winked, somewhat alleviating her fear. Lihua stood, following Chunhua out the door. Hinata got up and jogged after them, knowing that whatever awaited her, she was far safer with her two teachers than away from them.

Leaving Konoha and taking a direction Hinata had never traveled before, after a few hours they eventually came to a ravine, which they climbed down. Traveling out to the middle of the massive depression, they came to a shelf-like rock about two feet higher than the rocky ground surrounding it, and the three of them climbed up and sat down on it. It was wide enough to easily hold them, being perhaps thirty feet wide and nearly as long. While Lihua looked into the distance, Chunhua looked over at Hinata.

"Very weird things happen here at night," she said, a trace of mischief in her tone. "In fact, my teacher caught an ally here, or rather the ally..." Chunhua cut off as Lihua made a motion at her with her eyebrows.

"It's too early in the day for scary stories," Lihua said with a smile. She began to talk, breaking the painful silence, her voice soothing. "Awareness in a child eventually matures, becoming something called attention. This is not attention like you would say 'paying attention,' I mean it in another way."

"How do you know this?" Hinata wondered. The sun crawled across the sky overhead, hot and blustering.

"If you were to look at a child in the same way you foresaw Neji's true form, when you saw him as a ball of light, you would see the child's band of awareness growing brighter as she gains more experience. But this is all part of that attention, and it usually goes no further than this. Normally people go through life in this limited attention, eventually dying."

"So there's more?" Hinata asked, and Lihua nodded.

"The second level of attention is all the rest of a person's being that isn't used by normal seeing. The initial step to attaining the concentration needed for this next level is to become aware of oneself while one is dreaming." Hinata nodded, still somewhat puzzled. She vaguely remembered dreams where she seemed to have 'woken up' while still asleep. It had been extremely liberating, and at the same time so bizarre she had physically woken up soon after.

"This kind of dreaming is the doorway to a quagmire so complex and bizarre that seers only journey into it under the strictest of conditions. The great difficulty is that this dreaming is utterly easy once you've done it before, and its lure is nearly irresistible. The old practitioners of our line succeeded in expanding their awareness bit by bit until they were aware of their entire beings. Unfortunately they were then trapped by their own attention, unable to leave the cocoon of their awareness. The new seers corrected this, going beyond their own awareness in one jump, thus entering the third level of attention." At this point Lihua looked as if she was about to change to a different subject, and Hinata quickly spoke up.

"What's the third level?" Lihua observed her for a moment before answering.

"At the time of dying, all humans enter into the unknowable, and briefly attain this third level, but all this accomplishes is to purify themselves as food for the Great Devourer. The supreme accomplishment of human beings is to attain this third level while still keeping their life force, thus saving themselves from this fate."

Listening to Lihua's explanations, Hinata had completely lost sight of everything that surrounded her. She found herself crouching on the rock, Lihua squatting beside her, holding her down by gently pushing on her shoulders. Suddenly weary, she lay down on the rock and closed her eyes. There was a soft breeze blowing from the west that gently moved the fringes of her hair, relaxing her.

"Don't fall asleep for any reason while on this rock," Lihua murmured, as if she were merely observing the weather. "Relax, and let your internal dialog die out." All her concentration was on listening to her teacher's words in what was apparently a dangerous situation, when she suddenly got a jolt of fright. At first she didn't know what it was, then she realized that it was very late in the afternoon. What should have been about a half hour of conversation had consumed an entire day. She jumped up, looking around at the late-afternoon shadows around her, unable to conceive of what had happened. She wanted nothing more than to run, but Lihua jumped up and restrained her forcefully, pushing her to the ground.

Her body shook violently as if having a seizure, and she felt detached, watching herself struggle to escape her teacher's grasp. Eventually the struggle and the need to escape died down, and she became still. Lihua sat down, watching her closely.

"We've been playing around with awareness," she said after a moment's silence, "and you must have gotten scared."

"But, it was just morning an hour ago," Hinata insisted. "How did we-"

"Chunhua took the opportunity to push your awareness to its limits, and we all ended up in a very weird place."

"What happened there?" Hinata asked, suddenly afraid, but Lihua merely watched her with a carefully neutral expression. "Please, tell me...!"

"You must remember that on your own," Lihua said solemnly. Chunhua looked towards Lihua, her expression mischievous.

"Even though we promised her an interesting night," Chunhua said, "Hinata is the type of chunhuo who would die of fright if she pushed herself too far." Hinata knew quite well by now that chunhuo was the word for 'fool' in her teacher's native language. Despite her embarrassment, Hinata desperately wanted to agree and give up, but she hated to admit to such weakness. Lihua burst out laughing, unable to keep herself from rolling around in her mirth, eventually falling right off the rock onto the hard ground two feet below. After a while she regained her composure and sat up, rubbing the wetness from her eyes.

"You're truly caught in Chunhua's wordplay and your own pride!" she exclaimed. "You won't admit that you're a fool, but even now you're shivering in fear at what might happen now that you aren't being truthful with yourself!" Hinata couldn't help but see the differences between the people she knew in Fire Country and Lihua. She still didn't know the name of her teacher's home country, but it certainly wasn't any place nearby. The woman was always poking fun at her Fire Country mannerisms, as if they tickled her beyond belief. Lihua seemed to catch this feeling.

"Don't let your self-importance run rampant," she said, still giggling. "My own teacher added years of enjoyment to her life by laughing at me." She carefully climbed back up on the rock and sat next to Hinata, who was nearly beside herself with frustration. "If I were you," Lihua said, gazing placidly at her pupil, "I'd feel so embarrassed right now that I'd cry." Hinata blinked, trying to hold back frustrated tears. "Go ahead and have a good cry, it'll make you feel better," Lihua said.

Hinata began to weep softly, and then got so afraid at all that had happened that she shut her eyes and clenched her fists until they hurt. Lihua patted her back gently as the tears slipped down her face and fell onto the rock on which they sat.

"Fear is good," she said. "It sobers you up." Hinata blinked rapidly, wiping away the wetness on her cheeks. In the twilight, Lihua suddenly touched her arm with one hand and pointed to a flicker in midair at eye level. It appeared to be a large moth flying around the place where they sat.

"Be very gentle with your gaze," Lihua said, her voice serious. "But don't take your eyes from that spot." The flickering point was definitely a moth, and Hinata could clearly see its wings flapping rapidly in the air. Something broke her concentration, as if she had sensed a flurry of soundless noise behind her. She looked back and saw a row of people sitting on the ground some distance. They were sitting cross-legged, and were staring intently at her. She wondered if they were the owners of the land and had gotten suspicious, when Lihua suddenly slid down from the rock and encouraged her to do the same. Hinata felt quite clearly the killing intent fo the people sitting there staring at her as she left with her teacher. Chunhua was no longer with them, and she looked back, but the woman was marching towards the group of people, careful to keep herself between them and Hinata.

Lihua refused to talk as they walked back to the village, shushing her with a fierce noise whenever she tried to speak, putting her finger to her lips. Hinata looked back again, trying to see what Chunhua was doing, but Lihua grabbed her shoulder and shook her head, eyes deadly serious. As soon as they got back to the house Lihua usually used during their training, Hinata asked who the people were.

"They weren't people," Lihua corrected her. "Your eyes misled you."

"Who were they, then?" Hinata asked.

"The mystery can't be talked about," Lihua insisted. "Only witnessed." Hinata steeled herself, knowing exactly how dangerous her words were.

"Let me witness it, then," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. If something like this existed, it was far more dangerous to remain ignorant, no matter how terrifying it was.

"You've already witnessed it twice today," Lihua said calmly. "Even if you don't remember it now, you will later when you learn how to enhance your awareness and access those areas of your being where the memory is stored." With a loud bang that made Hinata jump, the door slammed open, and Chunhua came in, out of breath and covered with perspiration. She shut the door behind her.

"I was just explaining the first level of attention to Hinata," she said to Chunhua, who merely chuckled.

"The first level of attention works just fine with the known, but it isn't worth a flip when confronted with the unknown, like we were tonight."

"That's not quite right," Lihua retorted. "More like, the first level of attention blocks the unknown, denying it so fiercely that, to someone at that level, the unknown simply doesn't exist." She turned to Hinata. "What you can't perceive, you refuse to accept."

"If I opened the door," Chunhua said casually, stepping over and putting a hand on the door knob, "would your first-level attention be able to deal with what will come in?" Before Hinata could speak, she threw open the door, jumping back suddenly. Hinata flinched as a cold gust of wind came in, but nothing else happened, and she relaxed slowly, figuring it was another one of their games or tests. Lihua and Chunhua came to her side in amazement, looking her up and down. Hinata got up to close to door, because the cold was making her uncomfortable. Besides, where was it coming from? Even though it was night, it shouldn't have been this cold. As she moved towards the door, both her teachers jumped in front of her, shielding her.

"Don't you notice what's in the room with us?" Chunhua asked tautly.

"No, I don't," Hinata said, a bit frustrated. She knew she should have been afraid, but it just felt like this was another one of those times her teachers were making fun of her. Except for the cold wind pouring into the room, there was nothing to notice.

"Weird creatures came in when I opened the door," Chunhua said. "Are you sure you don't notice anything?" Hinata just looked at her, trying to find the hint of laughter that meant she was being made fun of. The longer she looked, the more fear began to slowly creep up her spine as the chill of the room deepened.

After a few moments, the two of them put a hand on each of her shoulders and led her out the open door. The three of them walked carefully but quickly to Lihua's actual house, the place she lived while in Konoha.

* * *

In between one blink and the next, Hinata came awake, and looked around, fear still tugging the edges of her consciousness. She was in a hospital room, alone, and her mouth was so dry it felt like it was stuffed with cotton. After a moment of pure terror, she remembered taking the potion earlier that day. Or was it still that day? She reached a shaking hand over towards the pitcher beside the hospital bed.

Forgoing the glass, she drank straight from the pitcher, trying to organize her scattered thoughts. Back at the time of the memory she had just relived, she had been with her two teachers, and it had been so dangerous. Now she was alone, not having seen Lihua ever since she had left her alone that day at the edge of her garden, and as long as she did not fully remember, she was in trouble.


	9. Dance of the Clones

A/N: You know what was bad? I got bogged down right when it was getting to the good part. In any case, here you go, probably one chapter that's as big as a third of the story so far. The Invasion arc was really the place I was trying to get to, when I started this story. It was the part I had in mind where all the fun stuff happens.

Because of my other projects, I can't promise exact release dates, but the fact that the story is getting interesting will certainly draw some of my attention. Hopefully this chapter will help relieve the "you're on crack!" reviewers. Or not ^_^ you decide

* * *

Dance of the Clones

After the abortive night on the rock, Hinata couldn't keep herself from pestering Lihua, trying to get her to explain what had happened, but the woman adamantly refused to talk about it. Finally even her patience wore thin, and she took Hinata aside to go walking. After a while they both stopped, and Lihua circled Hinata, looking over her entire body. Hinata felt a strange tiredness, a lethargy that hadn't appeared until the woman's eyes swept over her. Suddenly Lihua began to talk.

"I didn't want to explain what happened because Chunhua pushed you deep into the unknown, and you became very frightened. Things happened there," she said gravely, looking Hinata in the eyes.

"What happened?" Hinata finally asked, when she got her voice back.

"It would be nearly impossible to explain," Lihua answered, "since you don't have enough surplus energy to enter into the unknown and make sense of it."

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked. Whenever Lihua tried to explain 'the unknown' or similar things, it all became jumbled together in her mind.

"A person's initial attention consumes all her awareness, leaving not one iota of free energy. It would be as if your entire focus were on my face. You would be unable to see someone sneak up in your peripheral vision." Hinata nodded, this much making sense at last. "In order to enter the unknown, you much save your energy by eradicating unnecessary habits."

"But how does that help?" Hinata asked.

"It helps by detaching your awareness from self-reflection and allows it the freedom to focus on something else. If all you think about is what you like to eat, what you like to do, what you don't like, what you want to do tomorrow, and so on, isn't your mind enslaved? The unknown is forever in front of you, but outside the possibility of your normal awareness. It is the superfluous part of the average person. Superfluous because the average person doesn't have enough free energy to grasp it, to perceive it. Don't worry," she said, reading Hinata's downcast expression. "After all the time you've spent training with me, you have enough free energy to see the unknown, but not enough to understand or even remember it." She took a breath and looked into the distance.

"On the rock, you entered very deeply into the unknown, but became terrified, which was about the worst thing you could have done in that situation." She glanced back towards her pupil. "Fraught with terror, you rushed out of that realm like a bat out of hell, unfortunately taking a legion of strange things with you." Hinata wanted to ask about what the strange things were, but she couldn't form the words, she was so unsettled. Before she could work up the nerve to ask, Lihua took her arm, and they went walking again. After several minutes her teacher's expression turned mischievous.

"I notice it's been a while since you've asked me to teach you a new technique," she said, her eyes twinkling.

"That's because most of what you teach is either forbidden or just as dangerous to me as to my opponent!" she exclaimed, momentary frustration burning through her barriers before she held her tongue, blushing in embarrassment and fear of how her teacher might react. Lihua merely chuckled.

"When the practitioners of our line considered the knowledge the ancient seers had accumulated over the years, they were just as frightened as you are," she said. "Which is understandable. That kind of knowledge leads only to destruction. Yet they were also fascinated by it, as you were in the beginning. Especially with techniques." It was obvious Lihua wanted her to ask about them.

"What kind of techniques?" she asked, suspicion clouding her tone. If they were anything like her previous training, she wanted nothing to do with it. What was the point of a doomsday technique if setting if off put you at the epicenter of the destruction?

"Nothing like what you're thinking!" she laughed jovially at her student's discomfort. "What I'm talking about is a very obscure set of formulas and incantations that have to do with the handling of a very mysterious force, or at least mysterious to the ancient practitioners." This sounded suspiciously similar to hand-signs and chakra to Hinata. It was always possible this was just another elaborate joke her teacher was putting over on her to take her mind off what had happened on the rock.

"This force is present through everything there is," Lihua explained. "The old seers never questioned its source, simply taking it as something sacred, and they divided their secret knowledge into five sets of two categories each: the earth and the dark regions, fire and water, the above and the below, the loud and the silent, and the moving and the stationary. There must have been thousands of techniques back then," Lihua said with some enthusiasm.

"The secret knowledge of the earth had to do with everything that stands on the ground. There were particular sets of movements, words, and potions that were applied to people, animals, insects, trees, plants, rocks, soil," Lihua trailed off. It was obvious to Hinata that most of what she had been taught must have been earth-based, or related to the dark regions. Yet it was also obvious that whatever 'earth' techniques she knew, they were in no way related to the earth techniques of the ninja way. If anything, what she knew was more related to Fuuin Jutsu, or the Sealing Arts.

"The counterpart of the earth is the dark regions. These practices were far more dangerous since they dealt with beings without organic life as we know it. Creatures without organic life that live alongside us on the earth." Lihua's eyes had suddenly gone intense, as if this was the point to the whole lecture. For a moment Hinata connected the idea of these creatures to wherever she had gone while on the rock, but her rational mind recoiled away from that idea.

"But, that doesn't make sense," Hinata mumbled. She wanted to ask how something could be alive and not-alive at the same time, but that made even less sense. Lihua looked archly at her.

"To be alive means to be aware," she said, as if Hinata should have known something so obvious. "Anything that contains awareness contains life."

"But how can they be there and we don't see them?" Hinata asked, stunned by the obviousness of Lihua's point.

"Oh, but you do," Lihua insisted. "All the time! Everyone sees them, it's just that most people lack the attention or energy to notice them. They're so fixated on the real world that they can't interact with the other worlds where these beings live."

"But I've never seen them," Hinata protested weakly. "And I've been training with you for all this time..." Momentary sadness swallowed her words. Lihua's laughing eyes took no pity on her pupil's distress.

"You have indeed seen them," she assured the girl.

"But I don't remember," Hinata said.

"You will," Lihua said gravely. "You will." Hinata didn't know how to respond to this. After a moment Lihua continued her discussion with fire and water. "Fire can transport a person bodily just as water does." She gave Hinata no time to be confused. "Fire and water are divided into two properties. Heat and flame, and wetness and fluidity. The heat and wetness are lesser properties, while the flame and fluidity are the magical properties." Hinata tried to press her teacher for further explanations, but Lihua was unwilling. "The old practices are as intricate as they are useless. I will only outline things."

"But isn't there anything practical you can show me?" Hinata asked, wondering what the point of this all was if none of it was going to be used.

"So you want something practical, do you?" Lihua considered her student, and Hinata knew she had made a mistake. Of course it wouldn't help to apologize or try to change her teacher's mind, the only thing to do was wait it out and hope she didn't die of fright or simply because her teacher grew bored of protecting her.

"We'll do a water technique, then," Lihua said after a moment's consideration. "Since you're already familiar with earth." She waited, but Hinata didn't say anything. "You'll need a medium-sized mirror," she said, and it was obvious that was going to be the end of the lecture until Hinata returned with a mirror.

"But people in ancient times didn't have mirrors," Hinata said hesitantly. She again got the impression that this was all a big joke.

"No, they didn't," Lihua admitted with a smile. "All the ancients needed was a reflecting surface. Go get a mirror." Her smile eased the harshness in the command, but Hinata suppressed further suspicion.

"Just a mirror?" she asked, hoping her teacher didn't think she was being hard to deal with.

"A mirror and a frame," Lihua said, explaining further. "Make sure that the frame completely seals off the back of the mirror," she stressed. "Use glue or tar if you have to, and make it with your own hands, don't just go buy one that's already sealed." Hinata nodded numbly.

"Don't worry too much," Lihua said, her expression softening. "My teacher gave me such an example of a technique, so I'm giving you one. When she performed the technique with me, I didn't know how she did it, but now I do. You will too, later, when you perform the technique with your own student."

* * *

Hinata awoke with a start, and braced herself for the usual symptoms of extremely dry mouth and itchy eyes, but they did not come. She blinked rapidly, and swallowed, but everything seemed to be okay. After what Kiba had seen, she had no option but to escape. There was no doubt in her mind that he would go tell Kurenai or others in the village. She would be detained, questioned, examined, even taken apart if it came to that.

She sat up and pushed the covers off her, and that was when something happened. Gravity seemed to pull her in odd directions. She closed her eyes, trying to keep herself upright.

_Maybe my inner ear is out of balance._

The covers slid, oozing off of her. Her eyes snapped open and she looked around, but there was nobody there. The blankets that had been covering her continued their journey slowly down the bed. She fought down the instant fright that gripped her, but she could come up with no logical explanation. The covers had only barely been hanging over the edge of the bed, so it could be gravity that was pulling it down. Besides, it was moving at a steady pace, not accelerating.

Then the covers reversed direction. She tried to push herself back to the head of the bed, but gravity seemed to pull her to the side, and she fell over in a heap. The covers crawled over her feet, and began traveling up her legs. She was gasping for breath now, terrified beyond belief.

_The strange things that came over to our side that day, are they still here with me?_

She closed her eyes as the covers slid up over her thighs and continued, as if slowly devouring her.

_I'm going to die. I know I'm going to die. By suffocation, if nothing else._

_I'm sorry, Sensei._

The blanket slowed its progress, and she mentally kicked herself.

_Why am I giving up?_

But it wasn't like it was any use trying to use techniques, from either of her disciplines. She was obviously still under the effects of the last potion she had taken, so the results would either be nonexistent, or extremely dangerous.

_The potion. None of this is real. Or if it is, I can let it play out. None of the previous potions have allowed me to come to harm._

Doubt crept into her mind as the blanket suddenly leapt up to her neck, pressing her into the bed.

_No...!_

She fought for breath, but it would not come. She pulled her hands together, and made a handsign. She doubted she could make multiple signs under the sheets, but the technique she wanted to do only required one.

_Please work,_ she prayed, then she concentrated. Nothing happened. She began to despair, then, suddenly she was somewhere else.

Surrounding her was her garden. She looked around, making sure to keep the hand-sign, and her concentration. With the part of her mind that was free, she rejoiced. The garden had accepted her back, at least temporarily. It had been a gamble, but with death imminent, she saw no reason not to go for broke.

_But how long do I need to hold it?_ The rose bush clone that had taken her place back in the hospital was of the pink variety, one of the trickiest to hold, but it was probably the only one that could escape while causing the least amount of damage. But how long would it need to escape, so she could once again trade places with it?

_The question isn't how long do I need to hold it, the question is how long _can_ I hold it._ She closed her eyes, and settled in, careful to expend only just enough concentration to keep the technique in place. She needed to give her clone the maximum amount of time to work.

* * *

The ANBU guard outside Hinata's hospital room fidgeted. Mentally, of course. Physically he stood, not very imposing, but with an aura that commanded respect and fear to those who could detect it. He had been told precious little about what was going on.

"_Don't let anyone enter, don't let anyone leave. Not unless the proper authentication is given."_ Those had been the Hokage's strict orders. He had seen the Hyuuga heiress be taken in, and knew there were people who might want to gain entrance, if only to take her out while she was weak, but why was she not allowed to leave? When he saw her being taken in, she didn't look to be in any condition to even walk, much less escape.

The door slid aside and he spun, a kunai in one hand already, the other reaching for his hidden chakra blade. He froze, then stepped back a pace when he saw Hinata standing there. Her eyes were serene, her stance neutral, and he detected no chakra build-up. In fact, he detected no killing intent whatsoever, which was odd. Almost everyone had at least some killing intent, even if it was very small, and detecting even the slightest killing intent was his specialty. It was why he had been chosen to guard this room. Something about her made him uneasy, but he couldn't pin it down.

She stepped forward, or more precisely, slid forwards. Her steps were liquid, her movements graceful, and he felt only the mental intent of one who might be walking aimlessly through a forest, perhaps on a meditation exercise.

"H-heiress," he cleared his throat, cursing whatever spell he had fallen under. "Heiress, you need to go back in the room, it's the Hokage's orders-"

"-ssh." Her hand had come up, and a finger was light on his lips. "It's alright," she whispered soothingly. Still he felt no ill intent, but he was no fool. To stay in this position was suicide, if she suddenly turned hostile. This registered in his brain the instant her hand had come up, and he jumped backwards, feeling for the wall he knew was there. He could bounce off it in an unpredictable direction, get some space, and plan his next move. He would have to restrain her, that much was obvious.

He knew he had jumped. He had felt his legs move, but she had jumped at the same instant. In the split second it took for him to clear the confusion from his head, his hand tapped the wall, and suddenly she was on him. He braced himself for her impact, and prepared to redirect whatever force she used against him, but there was neither impact nor force.

His back was against the wall, and she was standing at his front, not pushing against him, but their bodies were so close that hers was molded to his, her head beside his, their cheeks touching lightly. Her hands were light on both sides of him, but they offered no resistance to work against. He and Hinata were near the same size, the other reason he had been chosen. In case he had to fight her hand to hand, he would at least have a chance.

"Tell me," she whispered into his ear, and he couldn't suppress a shudder. "How many tenketsu points do the human lips have?" Her voice was at once intoxicating and full of danger. While she was talking, he was mesmerized by the sounds her words made. It took him a few seconds to put them together and make sense of them, and by that time he realized he didn't know the answer anyway. It wasn't like tenketsu points were an exclusive Hyuuga secret, but none of the charts he had seen showed any on the lips.

"I don't know," he finally whispered, unable to make his voice work. That scared him, because it meant he couldn't call out. He was afraid to try to yell, because he didn't know what she would do if he did. Also, he was unmarried, and very near his limit. While he had been with a woman before, this was far different than that experience. "Are you... going to tell me?" he finally stammered out.

"No," she whispered, her voice like liquid honey, slowly oozing its way into his ear. He shuddered, enjoying the sensation. He was sad that she wouldn't tell him, but he was sure he could keep that intoxicating voice going. As long as she kept talking he would be happy...

"I'm going to show you," she said, trailing her mouth around to his. In the instant before she leaned in again, he noticed what it was about Hinata that had made him uneasy when he first saw her standing in the doorway. The pupils of her eyes were pink instead of the normal Hyuuga white. Then she leaned in, and his world of consciousness exploded. Ten seconds later, he lay on the ground in a puddle of drool.

* * *

Hinata's legs shivered, and her whole body dripped with sweat. Fatigue brought by her concentration mixed with the waves of pleasure coursing through her that became more intense the longer she stayed in the garden. Still, she kept her hands in their position, and her mind on the task at hand. It was the hardest thing she ever remembered doing in her entire life. Oddly enough, she felt that despite her fatigue, she could continue for a long time if she needed to. She wanted desperately to stay and experience the ecstasy of the garden for a little longer, but she needed to conserve her strength.

_I should not... hold the technique... any longer._

There was no telling where the rose bush clone was at this point. It was one of the weaknesses of the technique. Still, it had to be somewhere safe after this length of time. She could only hope that was so, for her strength was low. She braced herself, released the hand-sign, and disappeared in a swirl of smoke.

Where she had stood was now a beautiful pink rose bush about five feet high. For a moment, had there been any conscious observers in the garden, they would have seen the limbs of the rose bush shaped vaguely like a human body, one with such a beauty that it would have been intolerable to look at for more than five seconds. Then it was just another pink rose bush, like any other in the garden.

When she came to herself, she was standing in the middle of one of the forbidden sections of the many forests in Konoha. Her legs gave way and she fell to her knees. She gasped in surprise and pain.

_The garden was sustaining me._

It was the only answer. She could feel her consciousness fading, and she fought against it. She could not faint until she was safe. She brought her hands together, but it was like moving through thick mud. This time her hand movements were more complicated than the one in the hospital, but there was not a killer sheet after her this time. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven hand-signs later, she closed her eyes and concentrated. She still could not use this in battle, but this was not a battle. She had time to concentrate, and do it right.

Sudden weakness signaled the success of the technique, along with a quiet poof in front of her. She was afraid to open her eyes. She had effectively made a deal with the devil, but there was no choice. To actually summon her darker side, it was dangerous, but her situation was desperate. She fell forward, never bothering to open her eyes. She was too tired. Before losing consciousness, she felt warm safe arms surround her, catching her gently and keeping her from toppling over. If she looked, the fear would come, so she didn't look.

_Mother is putting me to bed, that's all._

The arms protectively embraced her, and with her eyes closed, it felt so loving that she instinctively embraced her rescuer.

"Mom..." She felt tears slip from her eyes. All this fighting, this training, it was tiring, and she just wanted it to be over. She wanted to go back to her home, her real home, to have parents who loved her.

"Ssh, it's okay." A finger wiped away the wetness from her eyes, and comforting arms held her close, rocking her gently back and forth. "...ssh, just sleep, it's okay."

She fell unconscious as her other self laid her gently to the forest floor.

* * *

"Good. It's light and sturdy, better than mine was."

Hinata opened her eyes at the melodious voice that could only belong to Lihua. After the past week of strangeness, she was getting used to this. She was holding a mirror, the one Lihua had instructed her to build.

"My frame was made of wood, which was all I had access to at the time."

The two continued to walk along the rocky ground. The nearest trees were miles back, so she was nowhere near Leaf Country, that was for sure.

"What we're going to attempt is a kind of water transportation technique," Lihua continued. In the distance, a stream burbled, the soft chime of water over stone becoming audible before the dip in the earth was visible. Soon they were standing at the edge of the rushing water.

"Sensei, what exactly is going to happen?" she asked tentatively. Lihua had rebuffed or ignored her previous attempts to find out.

"I don't know," the woman answered frankly, and Hinata was instantly sorry she had asked. "What will actually happen, I do not know. I only know what we will attempt to do, which is, hold the mirror on the bottom of the stream-bed." She waited, and Hinata realized that had been a command.

She tentatively stepped into the rushing water, expecting it to be ice-cold, but it was not. It was cool, but not unbearable.

"This stream goes through Sand country," Lihua said, her eyes laughing.

"I see," Hinata replied. She lowered the mirror into the rushing water, and Lihua reached down, taking the other side.

"All the way to the bottom," Lihua instructed. The bottom was just barely silty enough that the two of them could dig their fingers into the ground to keep them underneath the mirror. Hinata copied her teacher's movements. "Empty your mind of thoughts," Lihua said. "Look into the mirror, and don't think."

This sounded impossible, but when she looked into the mirror, watching her reflection and her teacher's, her mind slowly calmed down, going blank. The flowing current made their reflections ripple chaotically, but after a few moments, the reflections seemed to become clearer. Hinata blinked, trying to understand what was going on. The current still flowed, and around the mirror it rippled, but the mirror was clear, as if the water moving over it was still.

"Keep watching the mirror!" Lihua commanded. Hinata obeyed, blanking out everything else and focusing completely on the mirror. After a few moments, the mirror seemed to grow in size, but Hinata assumed that her eyes were tricking her. At the edge of her vision, her teacher was still the same distance away, but the mirror appeared to be a yard square now, as opposed to just a foot or so.

The current seemed to have completely stopped, as if the mirror were sitting on top of the water, as opposed to on the bottom. Hinata noted with fascination the odd crispness of the reflection, how it showed all the details of her and her mentor's face.

"Don't stare into the eyes of either of our reflections," Lihua whispered. "Let your gaze wander without focusing on anything. Gaze fixedly without staring."

She did what her teacher said without stopping to think about the contradiction. After a few moments, she had the odd feeling that a part of her was caught in the mirror, and the contradiction actually made sense to her.

_It really is possible to look without staring,_ she thought, and the moment she had that thought, she noticed another head next to Lihua's and her own. It was on the lower side of the mirror to her left. Her whole body began to tremble.

"Calm down," her teacher whispered. "Don't show your fear or surprise. Don't stare at it, let your gaze wander." The mere fact that her teacher had confirmed the existence of whatever it was, made her fear worse, but she struggled not to show it. She had to exert extreme will to keep from releasing the mirror and running for her life.

Slowly she got her fear under control, and as she gazed at the head, she realized it was neither a human head, nor an animal head. In fact, it did not seem to be a head at all, rather a kind of amorphous blob, a shape that had no inner mobility. Hinata realized that the thoughts she was having were not her own. It felt like someone was whispering in her ear, describing what she was seeing. Her byakugan was not active, and she realized she was truly seeing, as Lihua had often described.

_I'm seeing,_ she exclaimed, but not aloud. _Yes, you're seeing,_ the voice said into her ear. She suddenly felt encased in a force greater than herself. She was not in pain or anguish, she felt nothing in fact. She knew without a shadow of a doubt, because the voice was telling her so, that she could not break the grip of this force by an act of will or strength.

With a sudden jolt, she realized that she was dying. The force was crushing her, even though she felt no pain. She lifted her eyes automatically to look at Lihua, and the force released her. Hinata realized she was standing, and her mentor was smiling, as if she knew what Hinata had gone through. She was holding the mirror edgewise to let the water run off it.

* * *

Trees flashed past on both sides as master and pupil jumped from tree to tree.

"Alright Naruto, today we're going to do some really special training," Jiraiya said with a smile that Naruto recognized.

"Hey you pervert, we'd better not be going on another one of your weird information gathering exercises!"

"Hey, hey!" The man made motions with his hands in an attempt to calm his student down. "There are reasons for those, and besides, that was just once!"

"Oh, it was more than once," Naruto replied brusquely. The only reason he even stuck with this was because the man was truly a seal master, and there was so much he could learn if he could find the right method of drawing it out. To his left he caught a flash of black amidst the greens and yellows of the forest, and without thinking he sent off a clone to stay with his sensei, while he took a short detour. It was obvious that there would be no useful teaching for a while. Whether the man noticed his trick was not even a concern to him. His perverted teacher was probably too intent on the upcoming 'mission.'

As he jumped through the trees and finally down to the ground, something made him cautious. He hated the feeling of fear, but he hadn't gotten to where he was by ignoring his instincts. He crept forward, finally coming within sight of his goal.

It was Hinata, or it looked like Hinata. Her back was to him, and something about her pose and how she moved intrigued him. It was like watching water move in a container. No movement was wasted. He watched with fascination as she bent down and did something to someone lying in front of her. The one being tended was out of his view, so he didn't know who it was.

He slowly moved to the side, trying to get a better view of what was going on. That thing didn't move like Hinata moved, he knew that for a fact. Hinata's sister, maybe? Definitely marriage material, whoever it was. He didn't care how much older or younger that girl was, she was hot, and her movements made his heart race. A part of him briefly struggled, remembering his initial crush on Sakura, but all he had to do to kill that part of him was keep watching this tantalizing sister or whatever of Hinata's.

He frowned, when the girl moved slightly, blocking his attempts to get a better view. He had moved five meters, but all she had to do was drift a few inches to negate all that work. He crept forward, intent on finding out more about the situation. She was right there, not ten meters away.

_Why am I doing this?_

It wasn't like him at all. Why not just stand up, go over there, and talk to her? He would definitely get a good view then, both of whoever this was, and whatever was going on. Just as he was about to stand, she spoke suddenly, and in that instant he knew.

"If you keep trying to sneak up on me, I'll just have to kill you." The raven-haired head turned, eyes of darkness pinning him to his spot as she ran her tongue over the tip of a gleaming black kunai, its handle wrapped in blackened leather. No doubt about it, that was Hinata's voice, Hinata's face, but it wasn't her.

He blinked, shook his head, and made the sign for Kage Bunshin.

* * *

For hours afterward, Hinata was incapable of speech, and even of thought. She simply had no will or volition to do anything. Lihua guided her back to a clearing where she had built a fire. Hinata sat dumbly as her teacher began cooking a meal. After a while, she came and sat down beside her student.

"I've divided this technique into two parts for you," she said. "The first part we have just done, and it was enough to familiarize you with what takes place." Hinata shuddered. Part of her had hoped that was it, but her other part wanted to know more. "Soon, we will try to accomplish a completion of this technique, and you will find out what the old seers pursued when doing it."

"What..." Hinata cleared her throat, surprised she could finally speak. "What really happened back there?" she finally rasped out.

"I'll tell you both what you are asking, and what you don't know to ask," Lihua said kindly. Hinata could only guess how desperate she looked if her teacher was taking pity on her. "The old seers used a reflecting surface of a shiny object submerged in water to enlarge the power of the water. They believed that the eyes were the keys to entering into the unknown. They observed that the wetness of water dampens or soaks, but that the fluidity of the water moves. It runs in search of other levels underneath us. They believed that water had been given to us not only for life, but also as a link, a road to the other levels below."

"How many levels are there?" Hinata asked, surprised that she wasn't frightened as she usually was. The technique seemed to have drained her of feeling.

"The ancient seers counted seven levels," replied Lihus.

"Do you know about this yourself? Have you actually-"

"You and I are seers of a new cycle," Lihua said, interrupting her student. "We have a different view. I'm just showing you what the old seers did, and telling you what they believed." She pursed her lips and looked over at Hinata. "Just because the old seers had a different view doesn't mean they were wrong," she said. "It just means their interpretations were invalid. Their truths had practical value. With this technique they could transport themselves into the depths, to the other levels, or to anywhere along the body of water they were using."

"But why?" Hinata asked.

"For two reasons," Lihua said with a smile. "Both to travel quickly, and also to have face-to-face meetings with the beings of those other levels." Hinata was reminded of the rock, and the strange things Lihua had said came back with her. "The head-like shape was one of those creatures that came to look us over."

"Then that thing was real!" Hinata exclaimed.

"Of course it was," Lihua replied archly. "The technique is like a knock on the door, and the shiny surface on the bottom of the water served both as bait and window. Humans and those creatures meet at that window."

"I felt trapped," Hinata murmured. "Like I was held in place by some power."

"The old seers would say that you were pulled by the power of the water and the power of the first level, along with the magnetic influence of the creature at the window."

"I heard a voice telling my I was dying," Hinata said, feeling a chill in her spine.

"Had I not been there," Lihua said solemnly, "you indeed would have died. That is the danger of the ancient forbidden techniques. They are extremely effective, but most of the time they are deadly."

"I was scared," Hinata whispered. She felt miserable having to confess that she was terrified, but seeing the shape and having the sensation of the enveloping force had been too much.

"I don't want to alarm you," Lihua said in a serious voice, "but nothing has happened yet. If what happened to you so far is anything to go by, you'd better prepare for the shock of your life. Still," her voice brightened, "it's better to shake in your boots now than die of fright tomorrow."

Hinata's fear was so great that she couldn't even voice the questions she had, and even had a hard time swallowing. Lihua began laughing at her distress, and even in the middle of her terror she knew it was genuine mirth, not maliciousness. Lihua laughed so hard her face got purple.

Hinata finally began to calm down, but when she got her voice back, every time she tried to talk only seemed to bring Lihua another attack of coughing laughter. After a while Lihua finally got her voice back and reached over, touching Hinata on the shoulder, still giggling.

"You have no idea how funny this is," she wheezed, "it's not that I'm laughing at you, it's just the situation." She took a deep breath and leaned back, her arms supporting her as she looked up into the sky. "My teacher made me go through the same motions, and looking at you I can't help but see myself in you." She leaned forward and spooned a mix of beans and rice from the pot over the fire onto a plate, and offered it to Hinata. The girl took it, but made a face.

"I don't know if I can eat," she admitted. "I'm so scared I feel sick to my stomach."

"It's fine," Lihua said, waving off the girl's concerns. "It's natural to be scared. In fact, to control your fear is wrong and senseless. The ancient seers got trapped by suppressing their terror when they should have been scared out of their wits. Since they didn't want to stop their pursuit of knowledge and power, they suppressed their fear instead."

"What do we do next?" she asked.

"We will use the mirror for a face to face meeting with the creature you only gazed at the last time."

"What happens when I meet it?"

"That's simple," Lihua answered. "One form of life, the human form, meets another form of life. In this case, a life from the first level of the fluidity of water. These creatures can be our allies, if we let them. If we catch them," she corrected herself, her eyes twinkling.

"A-Are these creatures similar to the summoned creatures, like-"

"Something like that," Lihua answered, waving off the question. "They come through the window, is what I mean. You might say we summon them." She eyed her pupil intensely. "You've probably realized by now, the old seers didn't just stop at the window, but found ways to go through it themselves."

* * *

Naruto pointed the Finger at the monster before him and gave it the Speech, while his clones stood around and glared.

"I don't know what you are, but you're not Hinata!"

"Of course I am," she said, her voice liquid and sinister. "Don't you know me, Naruto-sama?"

"Hinata doesn't act like you," he said, folding his arms. "If she did, I'd have noticed."

"I'm sorry you're so unobservant," she said with a delicate sniff. One of the Naruto clones to the far right banished itself in a puff of smoke, and Naruto smiled.

"I see you've got what looks like the real Hinata there behind you." It pleased him to see her reassess his skill with a cool gaze, and give a measure of respect. Of course, it wasn't nearly enough respect in his view, but it was a start. He had known at least one of his clones would have a good line of sight, and he had banished that one, absorbing its memory. "What are you doing to her?" His voice suddenly turned ugly.

"I'm protecting her," she said, forming rapid hand-signs. A cloud of smoke puffs, and she was surrounded by replicas of herself.

_No, not replicas,_ Naruto realized. She had black pupils, these others had pupils that were very dark, but with a reddish tint. Kunais flashed, and Naruto tensed.

"You want to see who has the better clones?" Naruto yelled. "Fine by me!"

_She's bluffing. Unless she hid kunais all around for her clones to pick up. I don't see that, though. Then again, I didn't see her knowing the Shadow Clone technique either._

Naruto's clones outnumbered his opponent's simulacrums by nearly five to one, but flashing black darts from Hinata's side obviously intended to even that number out. Naruto's clones dodged in all directions just to be safe, in case the kunais were real.

They were real. Poofs of smoke dotted the battle space, and then the clones were amongst each other. The real kunais were only the beginning of the surprises. The Hinatas were still grossly outnumbered, but within minutes they had made short work of the Narutos. In fact, they were using Jyuuken, which did not escape Naruto's notice.

"What the hell are you??" One Naruto asked a Hinata, who merely shrugged, smiled, and dispatched him. Clones weren't supposed to be able to use Jyuuken. Forcing chakra out of their pores would disperse them. Naruto knew this, having researched Shadow Clones extensively. The last Naruto hit a Hinata with a shuriken, making her flinch away and grab her arm.

"Hah!" He grinned viciously. "You're not the only one who can hide weapons, sister. Bye now..." He waited, but the Hinata didn't disappear in a puff of smoke. In fact, she was holding her arm. She frowned and brought the arm up to her mouth, licking the wound, never taking her eyes off the last Naruto.

"What the hell??" He looked aghast at the five monsters before him. "They bleed??" That wasn't how clones worked at all. Four of the Hinatas disappeared in poofs of smoke, including the one on the ground. He grinned. "Pretty smooth," he admitted. "You swapped out the real Hinata with a clone during the battle."

"Yes." the last Hinata walked up to the last Naruto. He didn't flinch when she withdrew a midnight black kunai and ran her finger along its edge. "You're quite brave, if a fool," she said, looking him up and down dismissively.

"You're not the only one who knows clone tactics!" he proclaimed proudly. With a hand-sign, he banished himself.

"I see," the last Hinata said, smiling into the empty air.

The real Naruto was behind a tree a hundred meters away. He peeked around in time to see the last Hinata banish herself.

"Damn she's good," he said, grinning to himself. "And here I thought I was the clone master of Konoha!" With a hand-sign, he summoned a hundred of himself. "Find her," he commanded, and they shot in all directions.

This girl was special. Of all the people in Konoha, here was one who was worth defending. He shook his head. There were too many mysteries here for one day. Clones that could get injured, clones that could use Jyuuken, clones that were strong even when their creator was in a weakened state.

_Hell, the Jyuuken alone is enough. With that one, she might as well be queen of Konoha._ To be able to create an army of Jyuuken users on command, there was no beating that.

* * *

This time it took Hinata twice as long to relax and stop her inner turmoil. She and Lihua once again stood holding the mirror underneath the running water of the small stream, and persistent butterflies danced around her stomach.

They had already been standing there under the beating sun for nearly an hour. It had not taken this long before. Her back was beginning to hurt, and her legs had long since gone numb, but Lihua was nonplussed.

"Your discomfort will vanish when the ally appears," was all she said. "The shock of seeing it makes you forget all about it, really," she insisted, and her eyes laughed at Hinata in the reflection of the mirror. "Remember," she repeated, her expression going solemn again, "don't look directly at anything you see in the mirror."

After a few minutes, Hinata began to hear a peculiar buzzing in her ears. Lihua spoke, her voice a whisper.

"If you start to feel really uncomfortable, move your eyes in a clockwise direction. Especially if you feel like you did before, as if you were being crushed or enveloped by some force. But," her expression in the mirror went stern, "don't lift your head and look at me for any reason while we're like this."

Hinata was too afraid to ask why. After that, the reflection in the mirror began acting strange. First everything became dark, then spots of intense violet light appeared, along with spots of jet blackness. For a moment the reflection became something like a flat picture of a cloudy sky at night, illuminated only by the moonlight, then it changed again, becoming a three dimensional breathtaking view of the depths. It was absolutely impossible to fight off the tremendous attraction of that sight as it pulled her in.

"Roll your eyes for dear life!" hissed Lihua. She did so, and the movement brought immediate relief. Suddenly the view became clear again, and she could again see herself and Lihua. And the ally. It had appeared at some point when she hadn't been paying full attention. That was when things started to go bad. A suction seemed to pull the mirror down, and she could see the view actually distorting upwards, as if the thing were trying to come out of the mirror.

"Don't let it sink too deep!" cried Lihua, and they were both forced to step into the stream to keep hold. The water around the mirror began to swirl and splash, but the images in it were undisturbed. She felt something grabbing the inner edges of the window, as if trying to climb out, and the view began to change again as a cold terror gripped her. She no longer saw her or Lihua's reflection, just a large mass that was trying to come through. There was no doubt in Hinata's mind that the mirror at that moment was a hatch through which some unearthly creature was climbing.

"Reach under the mirror and grab my hands!" Lihua yelled over the loud splashing. "You'll get better leverage!"

Hinata obeyed, and let loose of the mirror with one hand, reaching for where Lihua's should have been. There was nothing there. In fact, she couldn't feel the back of the mirror either. There was literally nothing underneath the mirror. In her fright, the mirror slipped from her grasp.

"Grab it!" Lihua yelled desperately. She managed to catch it, and tried to lift it up, but the water was like glue. As she pulled it out, it felt like a heavy rubbery substance pulled it out of her hands and back down into the water. Lihua managed to catch it and pull it out of the water edgewise without difficulty.

* * *

Hinata gasped awake to find herself curled into a fetal position at the foot of a tree, with Naruto bent over her, looking down at her with an expression of careful respect mixed with curiosity.

"Are you okay?" he asked, worry obvious on his face. He touched her forehead, and his nearness made her feel faint. "You're burning up! I've got to get you to the hospital."

"No!" she exclaimed, though speaking sapped her strength. It felt like she had been running for days.

"What?" he looked surprised. "But you're sick! If I don't-"

"I escaped from the hospital already," she slurred. That shut him up. After all, why would she need to escape? There was obviously a story here, even if she wasn't in any condition to tell it. "Just take me somewhere safe," she insisted weakly. "I know what's happening to me, just... somewhere safe..." She could feel her consciousness slipping away, and wondered if she had gotten through to him, made him understand the urgency of not taking her back to anyone who might get suspicious.

"Yeah, don't worry," he said quickly, lifting her up in his arms. "I know where to go. Just hang in there...!"

Then the dreams took hold of her again.

* * *

Never in her life had Hinata had such an attack of melancholy. It was a sadness that had no precise foundation; she associated it with the memory of the depths she had seen in the mirror. It wasn't like she had outright failed. Lihua hadn't said anything negative about what had happened. It was odd, but she felt that her sadness was a mixture of pure longing for those depths plus an absolute fear of the chilling solitude required to exist there. She tried to explain this to her teacher, and Lihua merely nodded.

"In the life of warriors it's extremely natural to be sad for no real reason," she said. "A being of energy senses its final destination whenever the boundaries of the known are broken, as has happened to you just now. A mere glimpse of the eternity outside the cocoon is enough to disrupt the coziness of our life. The resulting melancholy is sometimes so intense that it can bring about death."

"So what do I do about it?" Hinata asked.

"The best way to get rid of melancholy is to make fun of it," Lihua said with a smile. For some reason that made a great deal of sense to Hinata. At the very least it would explain why her teacher laughed and poked fun at her so much.

"You know," Lihua said in a mocking tone, "I can see clearly how your mind was doing everything in its power to restore the order that had been disrupted by your contact with the ally. Actually," her voice turned serious, "since there is no way of restoring it rationally, your consciousness is doing it by focusing all its power on sadness."

"I understand what you're saying, but I'm still sad," Hinata said miserably. Lihua nodded.

"I see that it's finally getting through to you. You're right, you know. There's nothing more lonely than eternity, and nothing is more cozy for us than to be a human being. Our life is like the nine months we spend in our mother's womb, blissfully ignorant of all the intricacies of life that constantly surround us, held back by so thin a membrane of skin! This presents another contradiction. How can we keep the bonds of humanness and still venture gladly and purposefully into the absolute loneliness of eternity?"

Hinata could not even venture a guess.

"When you solve that riddle," Lihua said with a smile, "you'll be ready for your final journey."

That was when it dawned on Hinata with total certainty the reason for her sadness. It was a recurrent feeling with her, one that she would always forget until she again realized the same thing: how small she felt when measured against the immensity of that thing-in-itself which she had seen reflected in the mirror.

"We really are nothing compared to what was in the mirror," Hinata says softly. It felt strange to her that she was thinking things like this at her age, and she almost laughed aloud.

"I know exactly what you're thinking," Lihua said. "Sure we're nothing, but that's exactly what makes it the ultimate challenge, that we nothings could actually face the loneliness of eternity." With that she abruptly changed the subject, leaving Hinata with her mouth open, her next question unspoken.

"I want to talk about what you just went through." Hinata dutifully listened, setting aside her frustration. "The struggle was no joke, no matter how much you might think I was just pulling a joke on you." She stared at her pupil until the girl finally nodded. "It wasn't a matter of life or death, but it wasn't a picnic either. Believe me, I'm not making fun of you," she said reassuringly.

"You're always making fun of me," insisted Hinata, promptly blushing and turning away. "I'm sorry, sensei. I'm just not feeling well right now."

"I know how you feel," Lihua said tenderly, putting a hand on her student's shoulder. "Really, I do." Hinata looked disbelievingly at her teacher. Lihua looked away, her eyes going distant.

"When I made my frame, I made it out of wood," she said. Hinata opened her mouth to ask a question then realized abruptly that her teacher was talking about when she had undergone the same technique with her own teacher. That she would talk about something so personal just to make Hinata feel better made her blush again.

"My frame broke," Lihua said with a bit of a smile. "My teacher and I were left holding two pieces of wood while the mirror sank and the ally climbed out of it. Of course, sensei knew what kind of trouble to expect, even if I was clueless." She paused, but Hinata had no questions.

"In the reflection of mirrors, allies are not really frightening because one sees only a shape, a mass of some kind, but when they are out, besides being truly fearsome-looking things, they are a pain in the neck. Once they come over to this side it is difficult to get them to go back. The same goes for us, people who go over to their side are usually never heard from again.

Anyway, my mirror was shattered with the ally's force, and so it couldn't go back. Instead, it came after me. It actually ran after me, rolling on itself. Naturally I scrambled on all fours at top speed, screaming with terror. I ran, and the ally was inches away from me the whole time. My teacher ran after me, but she was too old and couldn't move fast enough. She did have the good sense to tell me to backtrack, and in that way she was able to help me get rid of it." It surprised Hinata to hear of this side of her seemingly invincible teacher. Lihua continued.

"My teacher shouted that she was going to build a fire, and that I should run in circles until everything was ready. She went ahead to gather dry branches while I ran around a hill, driven mad with fear." Lihua smiled. "I confess that the thought occurred to me as she ran around in circles, that my teacher had arranged this whole thing for her own enjoyment. After all, my teacher was a warrior capable of finding delight in any conceivable situation. For a moment I got so angry at her that the ally stopped chasing me, and I, in no uncertain terms, accused my teacher of doing this for her own amusement."

"What happened?" Hinata asked. She was so engrossed in the story that she had unwittingly lost her previous sadness, and Lihua smiled in understanding.

"My teacher didn't answer. Instead, she looked over my shoulder and made a gesture of genuine horror. I looked back, and the ally was looming over the two of us. I forgot my anger and began running around in big circles again. My teacher really was a devilish old woman, she had learned to laugh internally. It wouldn't show on her face, so she could pretend to be crying or angry when she was really laughing.

That day, as the ally chased me in circles, my teacher stood there and defended herself from my accusations. I only heard bits of her long speech every time I went by her. When she was through with that, I heard bits of another long explanation: that she had to gather a great deal of wood, that the ally was big, that the fire had to be as big as the ally itself, and that the maneuver might not even work at all.

Finally she built the fire, and with the flames shielded me from the ally. We stayed by the fire for the entire night, and the worst time was when my teacher had to go away to look for more dry branches, leaving me alone. In the morning, after I had exhausted all my energy fighting off the ally, it managed to shove me into the fire, and I was badly burned." Lihua looked away into the distance.

"My teacher never told me what happened to the ally after that, but I have the feeling it's still running around aimlessly, trying to find its way back."

"Are the allies always so aggressive?" Hinata asked.

"No, not really," Lihua argued. "They don't have the energy to be aggressive, or rather they have a different kind of energy. They are like electric current, while we organic beings are like heat waves."

"Then why did it chase you?"

"Those beings are attracted by emotion," Lihua explained. "Animal fear is what attracts them the most, it releases the kind of energy that suits them.

"Oh." Hinata looked up suddenly. "What would have happened if you had tried to control your fear?"

"That," Lihua answered, "is exactly what the old seers were masters of. They doled out their emotions, keeping the allies in bondage so they would do their will. The old masters were terrifying beings." Lihua shook her head immediately. "No, it's wrong to use the past tense... but never mind." She gave her pupil a disarming smile. "Their bid is always to dominate, to master everybody and everything."

"Even today?" Hinata asked. Lihua had made it sound like they still existed. The woman studied her for a moment, then changed the subject unexpectedly.

"You know, you really missed a chance to really be scared beyond measure today." Hinata did not know what to say to that. "It was probably the way you sealed the mirror, that prevented it from breaking it." She waited, but Hinata did not take the bait. After all, it was Lihua who had told her to seal it so tightly. "It's too bad," Lihua said with a sly smile. "You might have liked that ally, it was different from the previous day. This one was perfectly attuned to you."

This time Hinata knew her teacher was poking fun at her.

"Do you have allies?" she asked defensively.

"Yes. The ones my teacher gave me."

"Are they useful? I mean, how do you-" Lihua sighed, and Hinata fell silent. It was hard for her to see how anything so monstrous could be convinced to help a human.

"In a way," she explained slowly, "in some ways, I love the allies my teacher gave me. They truly are capable of returning inconceivable affection, but they are incomprehensible to us humans." She faced her student with a calm smile. "To answer what you have not asked, my teacher gave them to me for companionship should I ever be stranded alone in the immenseness of eternity."

* * *

Hinata came awake, or more precisely, switched realities the way one might flip a switch. One moment she had been reliving a talk with her sensei, and the next, she was sitting in a cave with Naruto. She felt oddly clear of confusion, and her body felt normal, even if she was a bit lightheaded. She knew she was still under the effects of the potion though, for everything around her had an edge to it. Things were too clear.

Her racing mind backtracked over an important fact. Naruto was over there in one corner of the cave. The boy she had admired from a distance for a very long time. And he was making food for her.

"Naruto," she stood with the support of the wall, and stumbled over towards where he was cooking "You... you don't have to make me food for me..."

"Hinata!" He looked up in surprise, setting the pot down and quickly walking over to where she was. "You need to rest, and... wait, why don't you want food?"

"I shouldn't eat, until..." as long as she was under the effects, she couldn't eat, but her automatic reaction kept her from telling him. Still, what was the point by now? Certainly more about her training and techniques would come out during the final part of the Chuunin exam. Plus, this was Naruto. Her Naruto.

A scrawl of writing on the cave wall drew her attention. Visual anomolies, now. She looked closer, running her fingers over the white marks. They seemed vaguely familiar. A closer examination showed them to be veins of a white substance running through this part of the cave wall. She chuckled. Now she was imagining hallucinations that weren't there.

"What is it?" Naruto squinted at the section of rock she was fingering.

"The Chuunin exam," she explained. "That's when everyone will know anyway, so..."

"What? What about the Chuunin exam?"

"No..." Hinata shook her head in confusion. "I can't eat while I'm under the effects of... of..."

"-of what?" He helped her to a sitting position, his face full of confusion.

"I ingest things... as part of my training. Oh, the fire..." Dancing orange flames drew her attention. "I see what she meant now..." She smiled, and watched the flames move and morph.

"What?" Naruto was completely lost now. "Wait," something occurred to him. "You mean you take something like soldier pills? That makes sense, I guess." He glanced to the fire, which held her complete attention. She stood, and walked over towards the mouth of the cave, stopping halfway. He watched as she reached forwards, brushing her hand through the air.

_Is she... petting something?_

A chill went down his back. She was either insane, or seeing something he wasn't seeing. He wasn't sure which one of those options was worse. He flinched slightly when he heard her begin to hum. Her head turned to the side slightly, and something about her smile made him cringe. It was way too similar to the smile that other Hinata-thing had made, during their battle.

He forced his legs move, and walked over to where she stood. The closer he got, the more the hair on his back and arms stood on end. She turned with a smile, and the feeling vanished suddenly. He happened to notice something in her hands. It was a small vial with a dark reddish liquid inside it.

"Oh." Suddenly things made more sense. "Oh." He grinned. "So that's the stuff you were talking about." He reached out, and she let him take the vial, and look it over. "So what does it do?" he asked, subtle excitement pushing its way past the unease he still felt. He looked up at her, but she was looking intently up towards the ceiling. He frowned, and looked up, but saw nothing of note.

"It helps me remember," she spoke suddenly.

He looked back at her, meeting her eyes. Or trying to, anyway. They never stayed in one spot for more than a few seconds.

"So... if I were to drink this..." he didn't even expect a solid answer, going by how she had been for since she had woken up, but he wanted to keep her talking. She was interesting, the most interesting person he had met in Konoha so far.

"You would die a very quick and horribly painful death," she said with a calm smile.

"Ah... I see." He gave the vial back to her. "And-"

"I do not die, because I have been conditioned for this kind of training over a long period of time."

"Damn, what, you a mind-reader too?"

"No," she laughed, and the sound of it made his heart beat faster. "She does that to me all the time, I guess I did it without thinking."

"She?"

"My teacher..."

"Kurenai does that?"

"No, not her." She suddenly sat down cross-legged and picked up a rock off the ground from in front of her, staring at it with an amused smile. All his questions died on his tongue as he watched her hum to herself. A second later, she dropped it and began crawling over towards the far wall of the cave. He scratched the back of his head, completely stumped.

It was both irritating and exhilarating at the same time to be mentally challenged like this. And then there was the way she moved, the way she spoke... In the distance she laughed suddenly, and his heartbeat sped up again. The sound of her laughter enchanted him like nothing he had heard in his life, and it wasn't like it was the first time he had heard someone laugh.

_What's with this girl?_

* * *

Hinata looked around. Lihua's house. She was at her teacher's house. The dream transitions were becoming more abrupt, which meant she was probably coming down off the effects. She looked around, enjoying being in a place she could no longer go in real life.

There was a strange excitement in the atmosphere, and she heard voices she recognized, coming from another room. She went to the door and peeked around the corner. A group of three people were talking intensely. They were a part of Lihua's original team, she remembered this from her training with her teacher.

They seemed to be so elated they were actually absentminded, which was strange for people of their level. She usually saw them completely at ease and in control, but now their level of energy was unusually high.

"Hinata."

She turned to see her teacher's calm smile of welcome. Something about the atmosphere made her apprehensive.

"Sensei, what's happening?"

"Come with me." Lihua turned, and Hinata followed her out the back door. They walked along through the forest as they usually did whenever she was being taught, but for some reason she felt a sadness she couldn't identify. After a long silence, Lihua spoke.

"The time is getting close for I and my team to leave this world," she said.

"How... how do you know?"

"It's an internal knowledge," she replied. "You'll understand when it is your time as well. My teacher made me experience many things just like I have made you experience many things," she explained. "Each student in our line is left with the task of eventually remembering everything, reliving all the training they have undergone. As it is done, their cocoon of consciousness is slowly lit up until the very end, when it is all lit up, and then the seer, and whoever she has the energy to take with her, will be gone in an instant."

Hinata knew she should have been so sad as to be weeping, but a part of her shared her teacher's joy. The woman was about to become truly free. The excitement she felt, she also saw in her teacher's eyes. She took Lihua's hands, laughing spontaneously as the woman descended into a fit of giggles. She knew that later she would weep with sadness at what was happening, but this day was filled with optimism and happiness.

"I don't understand," she said, getting her breath back. "Why aren't I sad? I know I'll be sad later..."

Lihua laughed and patted her back.

"Remember what I've told you," she said, "don't count on emotional realizations. Let your point of understanding move to a new position, and wait a few years. Your realization will be true." She looked into the distance. "It truly is difficult to fully remember what you have been taught, because of how many possibilities there are available to your point of understanding after it has been loosened from its normal position." She laughed suddenly.

"I know how much trouble I had remembering everything." She looked intensely at her student. "You need to understand and accept the difficulty of what I'm asking you to do. There is a good chance you will fail, and never remember everything. Think of it this way," she said, "all this," she gestured all around, "it feels so commonplace to you right now, but you might never remember this conversation." She smiled at her student's sudden thoughtfulness.

"This is indeed the mystery of awareness," she said. "Human beings reek of that mystery; we reek of darkness, of things which are inexplicable. To regard ourselves in any other terms is madness. One of the great maneuvers stalking is to pit this mystery against our inherent stupidity."

"But why do you have to teach me like this?" Hinata asked.

"Teaching in this way is the best, because when you are in this state of consciousness, you are very impressionable." She grinned as she reached out and tapped Hinata on the nose. "If you were in your normal awareness, you might refuse to accept what I say, or you might misjudge things." She looked back towards the direction they had come from, smiling wistfully. "You might not agree with me, but I've been very lax with you compared to how my own teacher treated me. My own teacher, Yon-seongsaeng, was a formidable stalker. Although I have already told you about stalking, I've never given any specific examples."

"But, I don't remember you telling me about-" Hinata began, but Lihua interrupted her, chuckling with delight.

"You will. As soon as you have gathered a great surplus of energy, those memories will become available to you. Now, back to my story." She paused, as if to gather her thoughts. "One day I was traveling between towns, and a group of thugs cornered me. This was before I had begun my training, of course. After stealing everything I had, they left me for dead. Fortunately for me, a woman and her husband came along some time later, and took my unconscious body back to their house. They nursed me back to health, and though I did not know it, the woman would later become my teacher.

This woman seemed very arthritic, and could barely bend down to tend to me on the mat where I lay in her room. She was always calling her husband in a thin raspy voice to help her back up. The food was great, and the man was always out curing others, so as Yon nursed me back to health, she told stories.

She told me about how she was the most wretched woman on earth. She had apparently come to the male healer for a cure, and had ended up marrying him and becoming his slave. I asked her why she didn't try to escape, and the woman panicked, telling me that she couldn't run, that no one ran away from that place.

Of course I didn't have any money, since the thugs had taken all of it, but I asked her if I could do something to help. The woman told me that when she died, I should marry the man to show my appreciation. At that point I knew the woman was crazy, and I decided to escape. Yon saw this, and used a monstrous being that was her ally to scare me. It was a huge man-shaped thing that was terrible to look at.

He came in, and advanced on the two of us as Yon whimpered and begged the monster to spare her life. I passed out, and when I came to, Yon told me that she had made a deal with the monstrous man that as long as the two of us entered its service, it would let us live. I asked what this meant, and she said it was really slavery, but since I had been rescued from death days earlier, it wasn't like there was much I could bargain with, since I already owed them my life.

I tried to stall, but the woman told me to stop wavering, that if I didn't accept, the monstrous man was waiting behind the door, and would rush into the room and tear us both limb from limb. I accepted, and Yon was grateful, with tears in her eyes, saying that it wasn't really that bad a deal. We would be more prisoners than slaves, and after all, we still had our lives, and so we could live and plot our escape."

Throughout the story, Hinata had grown more and more uneasy with the way her teacher had been treated at the hands of her own master.

"I don't see why you had to be trained this way," she finally said, and Lihua chuckled.

"I knew you would be upset by my story," she said with a smile. "The way I was taught was in a real-world setting. On the other hand, the way I teach you is more theoretical, and I tend to give you long explanations that my teacher never gave me. I had to figure it all out on my own. Still, while my teacher's methods were very powerful, they require a truly extraordinary teacher to pull them off, one far more adept than I."

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in the stately office Konoha provided for its Hokage, but no amount of pomp and circumstance could represent the heavy weight the old man felt on his shoulders every day he woke up. This job, his job, was already supposed to have gone to one younger, more capable. One who had sacrificed himself to save the village.

"Her clones bled," Sarutobi repeated. "You're sure about that?"

"I know what I saw, Hokage," Jiraiya reported. The old man, his sensei, was one of the few people he would treat with true respect, and not joke around with in the least.

"Lihua," Sarutobi murmured with a sigh.

"Lihua?" Jiraiya's eyes suddenly grew distant. "How long has it been since I last heard that name? Must've been five, six years..."

"Seven years, four months," the Hokage corrected him. "And neither Hinata nor Naruto saw you?"

Jiraiya snorted derisively. He was an expert infiltrator, but Sarutobi was worried, more worried than usual, so he said nothing.

"Not that it matters," the old man said with another sigh. "You could explain away your presence by saying you were looking for Naruto. The boy is your student after all." He said that last bit pointedly, and Jiraiya straightened. The message was subtle but clear.

_Find out what's going on. Off the record, of course. I don't even want to have to tell you out loud to do this._

He nodded imperceptibly, and the Hokage relaxed. Not even the old man's inner office was completely free of listening devices.

"So it's been that long since she passed through Konoha?"

Sarutobi nodded.

"A little over seven years ago, she was attache to a minor Fire Country lord. Then one day, she simply vanished."

"Vanished?" Jiraiya frowned. The lords of Fire Country were extremely wealthy, by the other Country's standards. If they wanted to find someone, he or she would be found. "You make her sound like a ninja."

"Not a ninja," the Hokage said, shaking his head tiredly. "Not even we could hide from a true search, especially if other ninjas are used against us."

"What then?" Jiraiya was truly puzzled, and it was uncomfortable. He prided himself on the gathering of information, and the intricacies of piecing it together.

"I don't know," Sarutobi answered, his tone almost plaintive. "You know as well as I that as powerful and mysterious as we are, we're not the pinnacle. There are groups, practices, with more power than we have. They've gone by many names through the ages. Seers, warrior-travelers, solitary-"

"No!" Jiraiya actually stepped back and bowed slightly, in apology for interrupting. "Hokage, that's a myth! I've never come across more than old wive's tales about them. It's said that they pass along their teachings to only one person for each generation! Surely a practice like that, it would wither away!"

Both men fell silent for a few minutes. Jiraiya walked over to the window, his customary cheerfulness gone as he looked out over the hidden city that was protected by so few.

"We have to assume the worst," the Hokage said, his gravelly voice even more tired than usual. "That this Lihua was one of them, and she had dealings in this village for over two years."

"With the Hyuuga House, wasn't it?" Jiraiya asked, turning to face his superior.

"Yes." The Hokage frowned. "They won't willingly or happily turn over their records, but they will, if I order it."

"Not that it'll even help," Jiraiya said, turning back to the window. His usual optimism was gone. "If the lords of Fire Country couldn't find her, what can we do?"

"No," the Hokage shook his head. "We can't find her, that I will admit. But we can hope to at least see where she has been. Her tracks will be visible, or even a part of them. Some part she forgot to erase. Hopefully the Hyuuga records will tell our black ops teams what to look for, if we can get our hands on the records of those countries around us. Whatever she did to Hinata," he fell silent for a moment, and Jiraiya caught on. He wasn't slow by any means.

"She's left a ticking time bomb here, hasn't she?" he asked. "But why? What would be her purpose? To use us as pawns, maybe, but for what? What can Hinata influence?"

"She's the heiress of a major family," Sarutobi murmured. "It's got to be that, though," he said with some finality. "I'm not willing to admit that this Lihua has made Hinata her practice's successor, not in just two years. It would take a lifetime to do something like that."

Jiraiya nodded.

"Imagine how powerful a teaching method like that would be, though," he said, something of a joking tone making its way back to the surface of his voice. "Find a bright young talented kid, take thirty years of training, inject it into her head, and let it leak into her consciousness over the next seven or so years." He smiled a lopsided grin. "Hey, it wouldn't be pretty, but you'd have a successor ready for you, whenever you got ready to track her down again. Even if her mind was a bit fragmented, it would take far less time to fix her up than to have taught her all that in the first place."

Sarutobi smiled at his pupil's antics.

"You always were a dreamer, Jiraiya," He said, his good humor returning. Both men chuckled.

No way was something like that possible.

* * *

Teacher and student sat back to back against a large tree, surrounded by quiet forests.

"Without a doubt," Lihua said, her voice calm and serious, "remembering and reconstructing what one has been taught is one of the most difficult things a warrior must do. It was the same with me as well. At one point in my training, Yon told me that our captor would be gone for a few days, and because he was gone, she no longer had to pretend to be old. Then she did something that astounded me.

She dunked her hair in water, turning it from gray to jet black. She stretched, and within a few minutes she looked thirty as opposed to eighty. I'll tell you frankly, at that point I thought she was the devil, and I was sure that my end was near.

Yon's personality had completely changed, she told stories and cracked jokes that caused me to break up laughing, but I still wondered why a woman with such power used this kind of subterfuge. When I asked her, she answered that because the monstrous man was always peeking in through windows and cracks, she had to maintain the illusion constantly, and really live as an old person would. She begged me to forgive her for the deception, and I reluctantly believed her. What else could I do?" She smiled, but Hinata was too entranced by the story to ask a question. Lihua stood, and Hinata stood almost instantly in response. They began to walk, though Hinata had lost all sense of direction, so she didn't know where she was.

"Well, I did take the opportunity to ask her exactly what happened, and she was all too happy to tell me. She regaled me with stories about how she was actually well-educated, an actress from a well-known land, and that she had come to get cured of a kind of stomach disorder.

To make a long story short, she ended up falling for the curer, who in turn fell in love with her. They planned to go to the capital to get married, but the man said she would have to free him from a sorcerer first, one that had him trapped in that area. To do that, Yon used her powers to disguise herself as an old decrepit woman, and the man as an old feeble man.

The story did not end happily. The monstrous man caught them and kept them prisoner. While he was there, they had to act as if they hated each other, and they lived only for the times he was away, when they could show their love for each other. After she told me this, she asked me to wait outside the room while they made love, and to watch through the window to tell them if the man approached the house." Lihua actually looked embarrassed, though the expression passed quickly. She sighed and gave her student a rueful grin.

"I waited, guilty and scared to death that the man would come back in the middle of the act. Sure enough, I soon caught sight of the man coming from a distance, and banged on the door, but they didn't respond. I barged in, and saw the man naked, asleep. Yon was nowhere to be found. To tell you the truth, I had never seen a naked man before, and at that point my fear and embarrassment were so great I passed out."

Lihua fell silent, and Hinata became very uncomfortable. With a start, she realized that up ahead was one of the side entrances to the hidden Leaf village. The guard recognized Lihua and came to attention. He might not have known her face, but he knew the sash that marked her position as an attache to one of the lords of Fire Country. It took Hinata a while to realize why she felt so uncomfortable, and during that time she became so upset that she couldn't even talk.

"You're upset," Lihua said gently, "because deep down, you're a moralist. You judge me, you judge my master." Hinata blushed a deep red. "Besides," Lihua said with a laugh, "you're being too selfish. Think about me, I had to live through it!" Her laughing eyes met her pupil's, until the young Hyuuga looked away in embarrassment.

"Believe me," Lihua said reassuringly, "At the time, I felt the same as you feel now. I judged her, feared her, and envied her, in that order. I also loved her, but my envy was greater than my love. I envied her flair, her influence over whoever happened to be around her. She always had something to say, and I never did." Lihua's tone turned pensive. "I always felt incompetent, left out."

Hinata finally realized what was making her feel so uneasy. She was seeing a part of her teacher that was like her. She didn't want to hear things like this. In her mind, Lihua was unequaled, unapproachable. No one in the hidden village of Leaf could come close to her skill, not even the Hokage. Of course, a match of some kind to prove that claim was unlikely to ever take place, but she knew it just the same.

They walked through a very familiar park, and approached the bench that she knew to be her teacher's favorite. It was empty, as it always was whenever Lihua approached it. She was once again reminded of how she had never once actually seen the woman physically fight another person. Lihua obviously knew how Hinata felt, for she laughed and patted her back as they sat down.

"What I'm trying to point out with my story is that the position of a person's point of attention dictates how they behave and feel. My greatest flaw at that time of my life was that I could not understand that principle. I lived through self-importance, just as you do now." She faced her pupil directly, taking her hand and looking her in the eye.

"The only way to improve is to establish new habits. Once it is jarred loose from its normal patterns, your point of attention is subject to your will. That's why I constantly state that you must have a strong will. At that time, your will alone can shift your point of consciousness onto a completely new plane of perception." She smiled at Hinata's sudden understanding.

"Yon-seongsaeng tirelessly guided all of us to this kind of shift through her use of bigger-than-life dramas. Her power was so perfect that she could make one believe almost anything, and make herself appear as old or as young as she wished. At times she appeared no older than you, but at others she was so wretchedly old that she could not even walk." She looked away from Hinata, up into the sky as the wind ruffled her long silken hair. The people of Konoha walked all around them, blissfully unaware of the life-changing conversation taking place in their midst.

"Under Yon's guidance, my point of attention moved unnoticeably and yet profoundly. For instance, out of nowhere one day I realized that I had a fear that, on one hand made no sense to me at all, yet on the other, made all the sense in the world.

I was afraid that through my stupidity, I would lose my chance to be free, and would repeat my father's life. There was nothing wrong with my father's life, mind you," she said with a grin. "He lived and died no better or worse than most men. The problem was when I realized one day that my father's life and death hadn't amounted to a hill of beans, either to others or to himself.

Yon-seongsaeng told me that my father and mother had lived and died just to have me, and that their parents had done the same for them. She said that warriors were different in that they shift their points of awareness enough to realize the tremendous price that has been paid for their lives. This shift gives them the respect and awe that their parents never felt for life in general, or for being alive in particular." Lihua was silent for a while after that, then spoke again.

"Not only was yon-seongsaeng successful in guiding us, her apprentices, to move our points of awareness, but she enjoyed herself tremendously while doing it. She certainly enjoyed herself with me," Lihua said with a wry smile. "When the other members of my team began to come, I even looked forward to the preposterous situations that she created and developed with each one of them. When Yon-seongsaeng left the world, delight went away with her and never came back." Such emotion was in Lihua's face that Hinata couldn't help but feel the peculiar mix of excitement and sadness her teacher obviously felt.

"Oh, Chunhua delights us sometimes, but no one can take Yon-seongsaeng's place. Her dramas were always bigger than life. We didn't know what enjoyment was until we saw what she did when some of those dramas backfired on her."

Lihua turned her head to face her pupil once more, her eyes brilliant and peaceful.

"If you are ever so dumb as to fail in your task," she said, "you must have at least enough energy to move your point of consciousness and come to this bench. Sit down here for an instant, free of thoughts and desires. I will try to come here from wherever I am and collect you. I promise you that I will try." Hinata didn't know what to say. Lihua smiled, then broke down into a giggling fit, as if her promise was too silly and lighthearted.

"This kind of promise should be made in the late afternoon," she said, still laughing. "Never in the morning. The morning makes one feel optimistic, and such words lose their meaning."

Hinata blinked, unable to keep herself from smiling in response to her teacher's mirth.

In between one blink and the next, she was back in the hidden cave with Naruto. The darkness was a sudden change from the light of her dream, and she blinked slowly, taking deep breaths. Her hands did not shake when she looked at them, and when she held an arm high over her head, fingers spread wide, the background did not ripple or move.

She was clear of the potion's effects. She laughed aloud, still feeling the happiness of that moment with her teacher.

"H-Hinata?" Naruto's voice startled her. She looked over at his youthfully handsome face and felt herself begin to blush. Now she could think clearly. There were no walls of blurriness shielding her from the boy she had long worshiped from a distance. Still worshiped.

She wanted to stay, to talk to him, to spend time with him, but she had to think about what had happened in that dream, that memory. Already the feeling was vanishing, like a puff of dust in the wind. She grasped at it, but her feelings for the boy in front of her clouded her mind.

Without thinking, she formed her hands into rapid seals.

_I can always come back to him later,_ she told herself. _After the final match of the Chuunin exam._ She shook her head, as this tantalizing thought further muddied the glory of her memory with Lihua.

No, for the near future, she had to completely forget about him, or she would be lost. Her hands made the final seal, as Naruto scrambled up and ran towards her.

"Wait!" he yelled, reaching a hand out.

* * *

Naruto could only watch with helpless awe as a cloud of smoke enveloped her, outlining her figure as she morphed into a being shrouded with such a tantalizing dark aura that he found himself frozen where he stood.

It was the girl he had fought before. He would recognize those eyes of darkness a mile away. When she moved, it was like liquid darkness roiling in human form, supple curves outlining a smile that at the same time stung him and and invited him to do more.

She gave him a coy smile and pursed her lips, miming a quick kiss, and he felt his heart skip. Then she was gone. His mind would later piece together what had happened. She had leaped from floor, to wall, to ceiling, over his head to the other wall, then hit the ground in a smooth graceful roll. She looked over her shoulder one last time, gracing him with a smile that lit a fire in the center of his being.

Then she made a hand gesture, and disappeared in a swirl of shunshin smoke, leaving behind a small slender black object that floated to the ground.

He eventually unlocked his muscles and walked over to where the object lay.

It was a single black rose.


	10. Shared Delusions

Shared Delusions

The forest was quiet as Hinata walked along. She had often walked similar paths with her teacher. It was a kind of moving meditation, when done correctly. Walking and looking in a certain way, it bombarded the senses with information, leaving no room for distracting thought. Since the previous day when she had left Naruto, she had not been able to practice it fully.

She sighed, looking around, trying to lose herself in the sights, but it didn't work. Wherever she looked, she saw Naruto. Over there to the left, peeking around a tree. Up on a branch, smiling down at her. In the distance, walking along ahead of her, turning once to grin and gesture her to hurry up. She closed her eyes, furiously willing all the phantom Narutos to leave her alone, and let her train in peace.

_How will I survive the next two days until the exam?_

She opened her eyes with a sigh. It was almost surely too late to take another potion. If she was still under its effects, she could not take the black potion, and without the black, she knew only defeat and possible death awaited her.

Two days until the final part of the Chuunin exam. Two days of torture, of seeing Naruto around every tree, of seeing and feeling the friendliness behind his expression. He was far different up close than she had thought he would be. When she had been weak, he had protected her, taken her somewhere safe, shown a tantalizing interest in what she was doing.

Tears stung her eyes, and she realized she was clenching her fists so hard her nails were digging into her palms. She relaxed her hands, slowing her breathing, trying to calm her mind.

_Two days. It's impossible._

_I want to see him again..._

She halted her steps. Somehow she had gotten turned around, and was going in the direction of his apartment. With a low moan of frustration, she backed up against a tree, reaching a shaking hand into a hidden pocket. Her hands were shaking so badly as she pulled the stopper off that she nearly spilled the precious substance.

She desperately drank it, then slumped to the ground and dropped the vial, her head in her hands. Only time would tell if she had messed everything up. There was no telling if she would be off the effects by the time of the Chuunin exam. But at least she would be able to forget about Naruto for the next couple of days.

Pain wrenched her midsection, making her fall over and curl into a fetal position. She soon realized her mistake.

_I disrespected it._

Pain made her vision haze.

_I forgot everything._

The mental state when taking it was of great importance, and she had somehow forgotten that completely. Instead of the reverence required for the ritual, she had taken it to escape from her own weakness.

_I'm sorry..._

Her breath was coming in shallow weak pants, and her stomach felt like it was so tight it was going to explode. Wetness slipped down the side of her face, moistening the ground beneath her head.

After a seemingly endless few minutes of pain, her consciousness slipped away, bringing temporary peace.

* * *

After a long walk through what might be considered the 'suburbs' of Hidden Leaf, Hinata arrived at Lihua's house. It was early in the afternoon when she knocked on the door, and after a few seconds, the door opened, revealing her teacher's calm smile. Lihua stepped outside, closed the door, and they went walking.

They talked, meaningless conversation as they walked, which was unusual. She was about to ask her teacher about it, when the woman casually took her hand as they walked. After a brief stinging sensation, she found herself shifted into a higher state of awareness

"Well, here we are again, the three of us, just as we were the day we went to that flat rock," Lihua said. With a start, Hinata realized the Chunhua was to her left, and a little behind her. She did not think about the inconsistency, except to decide that the woman had sneaked up on her. It was possible, since her teacher was light-years ahead of her. "Tonight we're going to make another trip to that area. You have enough energy now to draw some very serious conclusions about that place and its effects on awareness."

The three had come to a stop near the edge of the forest, where the Leaf and Earth countries met. The sun overhead was beginning its journey down the sky towards the horizon.

"What lesson am I supposed to learn in that kind of place?" Hinata asked, suddenly apprehensive.

"It tells a gruesome story about the old seers, and how they strove to live at any cost," Lihua answered, turning to look at Chunhua, who appeared to be about to fall asleep. "Wouldn't you say, Chunhua, that the old seers were dreadful?"

"Oh, absolutely," Chunhua answered crisply. Then the woman seemed to succumb to fatigue. She began to nod, and in an instant she was sound asleep, her head resting on her chest with her chin tucked in. She snored delicately, asleep on her feet. Hinata wanted to laugh out loud, but then she noticed that Chunhua was staring at her, as if she were sleeping with her eyes open. "They were such dreadful seers that they even defied death," Chunhua added between snores.

"Aren't you curious to know how these gruesome beings defied death? Lihua asked, looking intently into Hinata's eyes. She seemed to be urging Hinata to ask for an example, pausing and looking at her with what she thought was a glint of expectation in her eyes. When Hinata did not take the bait, she finally patted the girl on the back and laughed. "This is a great moment," she said. "My teacher had me on the edge of my seat at this point. I asked her to give me an example, and she did. Now I'm going to give you one whether you ask for it or not."

"What are you going to do?" Hinata asked, so frightened that her stomach was tied in knots and her voice cracked. It took quite a while for Lihua to stop laughing. Every time she started to speak, she'd get another attack of laughter, eventually laughing so hard she was crying. Finally she composed herself, and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"As Chunhua told you, the old seers were dreadful beings," she said, still rubbing her eyes. "There was something they wanted to avoid at all costs: they didn't want to die. You may say that the average person doesn't want to die, but the average person doesn't have the will and resources a seer has." She paused and looked at Hinata with raised eyebrows. Hinata said nothing, and she shook her head with a smile. "You're falling behind. Usually by now you'd have asked me ten questions."

"But you already told me that their knowledge had not kept them from dying," she argued. What was there to ask?

"Well, they did succeed in intending death away," Lihua said, pronouncing the words carefully, "but they still had to die."

"What do you mean, they intended death away?" Hinata asked, deciding to leave the apparent contradiction for later.

"They observed their allies, Lihua answered. "Seeing that they were much more resilient and resistant to death, they patterned their own bodies after those of their allies, changing themselves on a fundamental level. They developed the most bizarre techniques for redeveloping their bodies to prevent death."

"Are those techniques still in existence?" Hinata asked.

No, they are not, but some of the seers who practiced them are." Lihua's statement caused a reaction of sheer terror in Hinata, her breathing altered instantly, and she couldn't control its rapid pace. "In fact, they're still alive to this day, isn't that so Chunhua?"

"Absolutely," the sleeping woman replied.

"Why does this make me so afraid?" Hinata murmured aloud. It wasn't the first time she had heard stories of shinobi who meddled in the arts of longevity.

"Do you remember when Chunhua opened the door and let all the strange creatures in?" Lihua asked. Hinata nodded slowly. "On that day you assembled for us a very frightening world. I've told you this before, but on that day you traveled to a very remote world and scared herself pissless there." By this point the three had sat down on the forest floor against the trunk of a massive tree. Lihua turned to Chunhua, who was snoring peacefully with her legs stretched out in front of her. "Wasn't she scared pissless, Chunhua?"

"Absolutely pissless," Chunhua muttered, and Lihua laughed.

"Not so long ago, the new seers rebelled against the bizarre practices of the old seers and declared them not only useless, but injurious to our total being. Not only our practice, those of many similar practices close to ours even went so far as to ban those techniques from whatever was taught to new warriors, and for generations there was no mention of these things at all." She paused and looked over, but the sleeping Chunhua had nothing to add. She shrugged.

"Then how do you know about them?" Hinata asked.

"That's a good question," Lihua said with a smile. "One of the last of the death defiers came to a practitioner of our line asking for energy. She ended up going and training with that man for many days, and when she came back, she had not only had a new outlook on the ancient seers, but detailed knowledge of their techniques. She was the one who first saw how grotesque and aberrant they really were. Before her, that knowledge was only hearsay. One night my teacher gave me a sample of those aberrations. Well, actually she showed it to Chunhua and me together, so it's only proper that we both show you the same sample."

Hinata wanted to talk and stall them, but they would have none of this.

"Wait, sensei-" They stood, pulling her to her feet and leading her out of the trees into Earth country.

"Don't worry!" Chunhua winked at her. "For this, you won't be alone."

That did not help Hinata at all. After all, her teachers were a world apart from her. She could never truly identify with them.

"Oh no," Chunhua shook her head mischievously. "Another of your team will join us. Don't worry."

"My team?" Hinata asked helplessly, allowing her teachers to lead her along without resistance.

* * *

Naruto walked through his city, humming cheerfully, hands clasped behind his head, his usual idiot-grin backed up by something a lot more substantial than was normal.

"-haha, yeeha! Alright!" He spontaneously bounced off the wall of a building and up to the balcony of a second floor house. He grabbed onto the railing, peeking over at the old lady who was hanging out laundry. "It's a great day, isn't it grandma?" he exclaimed with a smile, immediately letting go and dropping back to the ground. The woman covered a grin with her hand.

"Young people these days..." she said with a giggle.

He kept right on going, making his way towards Ichiraku's, his favorite haunt. Several clones were going about their business, just 'happening' to be in position to overhear interesting things. It was a common practice for him, and by the end of the day he always knew a lot more about the general goings-on of Konoha than he otherwise would have known.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, just as he pushed aside the curtain to his favorite eating establishment, he froze. One of his clones had banished itself, deeming what it had just heard to be of extreme importance. And indeed it was. In his mind was a short snatch of conversation between a tracking team on its way out of the village.

"_-remember, we've been instructed not to use lethal force, but just between us, this target's important. Don't go overboard, but bring her in no matter what."_

It was that 'her' that sent a chill down the back of his spine. He was willing to bet a month's worth of ramen that they were going after Hinata. He frowned.

"Hey, Naruto. Your usual?"

"Sorry, old man," he said grimly. "Looks like I won't be able to eat after all."

"Hm? Okay. Later."

He ducked out of the ramen stand, and jumped up to the roof of a nearby building to think. She had left him at that hidden cave over a day ago, so it wasn't like he could send out a bunch of clones in all directions. She could be anywhere by now. Of course, he could safely rule out the village itself. She was undoubtedly out there in the forests somewhere, which would make his search efforts a lot less conspicuous. And there was only one logical choice.

_The Cats' Whiskers._

He smiled a hard smile. This would be the first time he actually used the 'technique' in a real situation. He had practiced it a lot, and even used it a few times just for fun, to track down the dobe for Sakura. Without further hesitation, he jumped from building to building to the village entrance, and shot away into the forest. He headed in the general direction of the hidden cave, then stopped by a massive tree.

Drawing deeply on his reserves plus a good bit of the demon's chakra, he summoned a couple thousand of himself. He sat down and leaned back against the tree, closing his eyes as all but three of the clones set out in all directions. They would go in groups of ten, then five, then finally two or one as they spread out and covered the area. The further they went, the more they would have to go back and forth to cover every inch of the ever-growing circle, but it didn't matter. He would find her.

Within ten minutes a clone had banished itself, showing him exactly what he had feared. A search team really was after Hinata. Now, though, he knew where it was, and he felt satisfaction when a group of clones gathered together and trailed it on their own initiative, one of them banishing itself every thirty seconds. After that, one of the members backtracked, forcing all the clones to banish themselves or risk discovery, but he had already gotten a bead on their general direction. Using the knowledge of where the search team was, he found Hinata within fifteen minutes, and he shot off to where she was, collapsed in a clearing several miles away.

Ten anxious minutes later, he jumped down into the clearing, his heart in his throat when he saw her sprawled on the forest floor, the afternoon sun highlighting her pale skin as the wind moved the fringes of her hair.

The rest of his clones had banished themselves after sowing traps around the general area just to warn him of the search team's arrival. He knew he wouldn't be able to stop shinobi of such higher class, but at least he would get warning.

Bending over her, he saw that her face was paler than usual and covered in perspiration.

"Hinata..." He touched her forehead, but she wasn't as hot as he had thought. "Hinata...!" Behind him, a distant explosion signaled that the tracker team was closing in. Relief flooded through him when she stirred and murmured, finally cracking open her eyes.

"-N-Naruto?" she mumbled weakly.

"Yeah, c'mon! We've got to go, there's someone after you!" He helped her to her feet, and they hobbled a few steps before he picked her up in frustration and jumped to the lowest branch of the nearest tree. He had jumped along a dozen trees when she began to struggle weakly.

"I'm okay Naruto, put me down..."

"Can you jump?" He came to rest on a large branch and set her down gingerly.

"I think so..." He caught a whiff of something flowery on her breath as he supported her. She turned, steadied herself, and prepared to jump for the next branch. He summoned clones, which shot in various directions in pairs, then he and Hinata took flight again. After five minutes, the pursuers had diminished in the distance, apparently chasing one of the fake Hinata/Naruto pairs. Hinata stumbled on a branch, and he caught her, supporting her as they leaped down to the ground. She bent over, coughing weakly. He noticed her eyes were glazed.

"You shouldn't be with me, Naruto," she said weakly. "You'll be captured, and questioned."

"No!" he exclaimed, "I don't care about that-" Her eyes shifted, going a very dark red, almost black. She shimmered, and reappeared a dozen meters away, crouched, shimmered again, and this time almost completely obscured by trees in the distance. _That's got to be shunshin, or at least a precursor to it...! How does she know that technique?_ Pushing himself desperately, he followed. Even pushing to his limits, he had a hard time keeping in sight of the wavering figure. In the distance, she suddenly stumbled, going down in a heap. It took him thirty seconds to get to her side. He rolled her over. Her eyes were white again, and she was shivering.

"I can escape you," she whispered. "Leave."

"If you can get away, then why don't you?" he demanded. "Why haven't you already?" She blushed, turning her head away. If she had truly wanted to escape, she would have, he knew that. This knowledge gave him hope, fueled his words. "I want to know more about you," he said more calmly. "I think I..." She turned to face him again, her blush deeper than before. "You fascinate me," he finally admitted. "I want to spend more time with you." She shook her head, looking away again.

"Just that wish won't be enough," she said softly, her voice sorrowful. "You don't know what you're asking for." He shook his head, but she continued. "You'll give up," she said.

"I won't!" he said firmly. "When I say something, I mean it. That's my ninja way!" His face was hard and confident. "I want to get to know you, Hinata Hyuuga, that's my firm desire, and it won't ever change!"

"Alright." She was looking at him steadily now, and her expression was more serene. In a way, it frightened him.

"Really? Just like that?" It was like she had surrendered responsibility. _You've made your choice,_ that look said. _You'll have to live with the consequences._

"Yes," she said.

"Well, now what?" he scratched the back of his head. She shook her head.

"This is why I said just a desire isn't enough. I'm... I'm under the effects of-" she suddenly doubled over in pain, and he cradled her, suppressing the urge to drop her and back away. Her eyes went dark again, and he tensed, but the darkness faded. His mouth worked, but he couldn't form words "See?" she looked at him miserably. "At any time, I might disappear in some way, through some technique I don't even know I'm using, and you won't be able to follow me." She coughed raggedly. "You should never have said those words. It will hurt to be away from you, and it will affect my training."

"What? Your training-"

"I took a potion," she finally said outright. "I couldn't get you out of my mind, so I took a potion. It may already be too late. If I am still under its effects during my fight, I will surely lose. I will be weak, coming down from the high."

"Why did you do that?" he wondered, completely perplexed.

"I wasn't thinking straight," she said softly. He shifted, suddenly uncomfortable at the position they were in, and he gently set her down.

"Look, I meant what I said before," he repeated. "Isn't there anything you could do?... Something..." He trailed off at the suddenly pensive look he saw in her eyes.

"There is a possibility," she said, looking at the empty vial she pulled from a hidden pocket, "that you could join me, in this."

"You mean, in that..." he stared at the vial, and it dawned on him what she meant. "-oh! There's still some in there! Just a drop, right? The whole thing would kill me, but that drop-"

"No," she said, clenching her fist around the vial and closing her eyes. "Even the smallest drop of concentrate would be far too strong."

"Then, then dilute it with water!" He said. "Then I could-"

"It doesn't work that way!" She exclaimed, tossing the vial away in frustration. "If the dosage is wrong in either direction, it would be bad. Really bad. And in water, it's static. You don't understand, this thing, it's alive. To get the dosage right, it would have to change constantly. Even if there was a way to change the dilution moment by moment, I wouldn't have the reflexes. I wouldn't know how, or how much..."

"Isn't there any way?" He asked glumly.

"No," she insisted. "At the very least, I'd have to actually feel what you felt, to know what was going on, and to adjust the... the dosage..." She blushed suddenly.

"What? What is it?" He demanded. "You've thought of something!" He pointed at her furiously. "Well? Am I right?"

"Yes," she admitted in a small voice.

"Well? C'mon, what're you waiting for? They might be here any minute! We can't run forever...!"

Still blushing, she faced him, her expression firm.

"What I'm about to do," she spoke slowly, "do you trust me?"

"Well," he was suddenly nervous, "what are you about to do?" She shifted, preparing to get to her feet, possibly to leave him there. "Yeah! I trust you!" He shook his head, removing the false excitement he usually wore. "I trust you completely," he said seriously. "My life is in your hands." She looked him in the eyes with a wan smile.

"Yes," she said, "it is, if you want to do this."

"I do," he insisted, eagerness coming back into his tone.

"This," embarrassment returned to her expression, "...what I'm about to do is very touchy. You have to keep yourself still and calm. If you disturb me, and I mess up, the dosage will be wrong. You will not die, I think," she said thoughtfully, "but you will be very sick. Too sick to take part in the Chuunin exam." His eagerness drained away, but he didn't turn away or flinch.

"Alright," he said, "keep myself still and calm. I got it."

"This is important," she reiterated. "No matter what you might think, I'm doing this because it's the only way for me to control the dosage properly, and feel what you are feeling."

"Alright." He steeled himself for whatever might come.

She stepped forward and put her hands on both sides of his head, looking into his eyes. She looked more than a little uncomfortable. "Close your eyes," she told him. "This is embarrassing."

"Alright." He closed them, even though he didn't want to.

A few seconds later, he felt a touch of breath on his cheek and he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt her lips on his. At the last second he remembered her command, and kept himself still. At first he had wanted to jump away, and now he wanted to do the opposite, but he put down both those wants, and held himself as motionless as possible.

She immediately sought entry into his mouth with her tongue, and he saw her plan. _Genius! Her saliva still has the drug, and it's probably really diluted by now. And she can control how much I get by the, by the..._ It was hard to think in this position.

Logically he knew the movements she made with her tongue against his was to mix the saliva as much as possible. Hormonally, that was the furthest thing from his mind.

After a few long seconds he began to feel woozy, and his breathing quickened. She pulled back slightly, lessening the connection, and though he wanted to move forward and deepen the kiss back to where it was, two things prevented that. His movements and reactions had become strangely sluggish, and he remembered just in time why exactly she was doing this, and so acquiesced to her control.

She almost completely closed her mouth, and the sluggish feeling began to recede. She deepened the kiss slowly, slowly, and the wooziness returned in force, more quickly this time. She backed off, just at the point where it was getting unbearable. _Damn, she's sadistic! _He felt a sudden weakness and slumped forward. She caught him, her hands on his shoulders, and let him rest against her. The wooziness was constant now, and she was expertly controlling it, keeping him from going completely unconscious with subtle adjustments of her mouth. The feeling of helplessness grated against him for a moment, but he firmly pushed it aside. _This girl, I don't mind being helpless to her._

It went against his nature, but he embraced the weakness, the fact that he was powerless in her hands. It still irked a part of him, and he tried to make sense of that part. Then he realized. _Oh, haha._ It felt like she was violating him. _Well, I don't mind if she does._ That thought almost brought him to his senses, and he blinked rapidly. _Damn, I'm messed up right now._

His vision was blurry now, and he couldn't really feel her lips any more, which kind of sucked in his opinion. That was when the nausea hit him. He braced himself, and it lessened for a moment, then returned twice as strong, nearly causing him to double over in pain. She pulled back and took her mouth from his.

"That's enough," she said.

"Naw," he slurred, stumbling forward against her. "More. I can take it."

She guided him gently to the ground.

"Any more and you would surely miss the Chuunin exam."

"Oh, haha. Nev'mind then." He blinked dully, struggled against the wooziness, then finally closed his eyes and welcomed blissful sleep.

* * *

By the time they stopped at the bottom of a large barren hill, Hinata looked around and noticed something.

"Where's Chunhua-sensei?" she asked Lihua. The woman seemed to ignore her, and instead pointed towards some distant mountains to the south.

"Between that place and where we stand now is a natural cut in the mountains. It looks like an open mouth when viewed from a distance. There are at least six other similar sites where the ancient seers focused all the power of their awareness." She looked at her pupil, who reluctantly paid attention.

"Those seers were not only knowledgeable and daring, but they were downright successful. My own teacher showed me and Chunhua a site where the old seers, driven by their love for life, had buried themselves and actually intended away death. There is nothing to catch the eye in those places, for the old seers were careful to leave no marks. It is just a landscape. One has to see to know where those places are. Now, I don't want to walk to one of the faraway sites, but I will take you to the one nearest to here." She said it as if she were doing her student a favor.

"What exactly are we going to do there?" Hinata asked. Something felt wrong, especially with Chunhua's absence.

"We're going to see the buried seers, of course," Lihua said, as if that should have been obvious. "Before we do that, we'll have to stay here until it gets dark. Let's take cover behind those bushes over there... Oh!" She waved, and a head peeked over the bushes for a moment, before vanishing again. She took Hinata's hand and they jogged over to the scraggly waist-high vegetation. Behind it were Chunhua and another.

"Lihua, look who I found...!" Hinata's heart nearly stopped. It was a boy about her age, though his skin was tanned as if he were from Sand country. She knew that wasn't the case, though. Somehow, she knew him. It all flooded back into her mind, making her eyes water.

He was her other half, her companion in the training she was undergoing. How had she forgotten him so completely? She knew the answer to that. It was because she only ever saw him when she was in heightened states of awareness. They never met in her normal life.

Sometime in the last few seconds she had drifted to her knees, and she was holding hands with the one most precious to her. It hurt to look into his youthful face and know that when this day of training was over, she would forget him again, completely. Looking into his eyes, she saw the place she had in his heart, and she knew the place he had in hers. Maybe this was why she felt so empty in her normal life. She looked over to Lihua, who was smiling at her with sad eyes, as if she knew what the girl was going through.

A delicate snore informed her that one of her teachers was was asleep again.

"Chunhua," Lihua prodded her sleeping companion. "While we're waiting, show Hinata the exact spot where the old seers were buried. To the girl's utter amazement, the sleeping woman jumped up, barked like a dog, and ran off on all fours to the spot where Lihua was pointing. Her movements were so graceful and dog-like that Hinata couldn't keep from laughing.

"Hinata..." She turned, and saw that her companion was tugging on the sleeve of her jacket. "What's going on here?" The panic in his eyes jarred her loose from her surroundings.

"N-Naruto?" She didn't know how she knew, but she did. This was a memory of her previous training, she knew this for a fact. Her companion had even been with her at that time. Somehow, Naruto's mind had gotten tangled up in the memory, and he was living her companion's life. In the distance, Chunhua ran around the distant spot in a perfect mime of a dog. Hinata found this performance both hilarious and at the same time terrifying, considering the situation. Lihua was nearly on the ground laughing.

"Chunhua has just shown you something extraordinary," Lihua said, "something about the point of attention, and dreaming. She is dreaming now, but can act as if she were fully awake and can hear everything you say," Lihua's eyes shone as she spoke, looking at Hinata and Naruto. The fact that her teacher was acting as if nothing was wrong only made Hinata more afraid. _But then again, she wouldn't know,_ Hinata thought. _To her, she is training me and my companion. She has no way of knowing Naruto is sharing my thoughts right now. I hope._ The thought of what her teacher might do to see her student so profane her teaching made her shiver.

"From where she is now, she can do more than if she were awake." Lihua fell silent as if assessing what to say next, and Chunhua was snoring rhythmically, having returned to the bushes. "It's easy to find flaws in what the old seers have done, but in all fairness I never grow tired of repeating how wonderful their accomplishments are. They understood earth techniques to perfection. Not only did they discover how to gain energy boosts from the earth, they developed the most astounding and complex techniques for burying themselves for extremely long periods of time without harming themselves. They knew how to elongate those periods to cover millennia."

Hinata sat, trying to make sense of what her teacher was saying, and at the same time holding onto Naruto's arm to keep him from bolting. Over the course of the next few hours, the tension she felt from him slowly melted away, though he didn't speak.

It was a cloudy day and night fell quickly.

Finally, Lihua stood and guided Hinata and the sleepwalker Chunhua across the rocky dry ground. Naruto followed, his hand firmly in Hinata's. They walked towards an enormous flat oval rock that dominated the entire landscape for miles around.

"I've been to a place like this before," she whispered to Naruto, who was pale.

"R-Really? What happened?"

"We-"

"Come on!" Lihua helped them up onto the rock. It was similar to the flat rock they had visited before, but was bigger.

"This huge rock was placed here as part of a giant trap array, to attract people." Lihua said with relish. "Soon you'll know why."

"Is she insane?" Naruto hissed into her ear. Hinata felt a shiver run through her body. From her ninja training she knew somewhat of seals, trap arrays, or natural genjutsu alignments, but there was no telling if Lihua's choice of words meant anything similar to that.

"While she's in a dreaming state, Chunhua has the ability to align her own emanations with the emanations of what has buried itself here," Lihua said. Chunhua snored peacefully. "In fact, if she wants to, she can even wake it up."

"Wh-Why would she want to do that?" Naruto asked. Lihua shot him an unreadable look, and Hinata put her hand on his, hoping desperately he would stop drawing attention to himself.

"Try to observe what Chunhua is doing with her dreaming body," Lihua instructed Hinata, "and if you can, try to follow it with your own consciousness." She gave her two charges an intense look. "The real danger is going to be the buried seers' inevitable attempt to scare the both of you to death. Try to keep calm, and don't succumb to your fear. Follow Chunhua's movements."

Hinata looked at Naruto's scared expression and fought desperately not to be sick. She had never intended to bring him into something this intense. Lihua patted her on the back

"It's not really your fault that you're finding this so difficult. You never expected to be in this kind of situation." She looked pityingly at Naruto. "Any human alive would automatically recoil from this kind of thing, so don't feel bad. Still, you should be prepared. Something is going to scare the living daylights out of the two of you." Her voice had dropped to a whisper. "Don't give up, because if you do, you'll both die and the old vultures around here will feast on your energy."

"Please," Hinata felt her voice wavering, "just let us leave, he shouldn't be here..." she glanced at Naruto, whose face had regained some of its former color.

"It's too late," Chunhua said casually, now fully awake and standing by Hinata's side. "Even if we try to get away, the two seers and their allies on the other spot will cut us down. The three of us are no match for them in an actual fight."

"They've already made a circle around us," Lihua said. She stood on the other side of Naruto, almost touching him. "There are as many as sixteen awarenesses focused on you right now."

"Who are they?" Naruto asked, looking around.

"The four seers and their court," Lihua replied. "They've been aware of us since we got here." Hinata wanted to grab Naruto's hand and run for dear life, but Chunhua held her arm and pointed to the sky. She noticed that a remarkable change in visibility had taken place. Instead of pitch-blackness, there was a pleasant dawn twilight.

Hinata felt a strange pressure around her head. Her ears were buzzing, and she felt both cold and feverish at the same time. She was scared like she had never been before, but what bothered her was the nagging sensation of defeat, of being a coward. She didn't want to be cowardly, not in front of her teachers, and especially not in front of Naruto. She felt nauseated and miserable.

"Be on the alert," Lihua said casually. "All four of us could feel the onslaught of the old seers at any moment."

"You can grab on to me if you want to," Chunhua said in a fast whisper. She hesitated for an instant, not wanting her teachers to believe that she was so scared she needed to hold onto someone. It didn't matter anyway, she realized, because her right hand was already tightly clenched in Naruto's left. "Here they come!" Chunhua said in a loud whisper.

The world turned upside down instantaneously for Hinata when something grabbed her left ankle. She felt the coldness of death on her entire body and knew she had stepped on an iron clamp, or maybe a trap of some kind. This all passed through her mind before she let out a piercing scream, as intense as her fright. Lihua and Chunhua laughed out loud as Naruto let out a yelp of surprise as well. Naruto and her two teachers were no more than three feet away, but she was so terrified she didn't even notice them.

"Sing! Sing for dear life!" she heard Lihua order under her breath. She tried to pull her foot loose, and felt a sting as if needles were piercing her skin. She was trapped, and knew there was no way out. "I'm telling you, sing!" Lihua ordered. She and Chunhua started to sing a popular fold song. They sang off-key in raspy voice, getting so completely out of breath and so high out of range of their voices that despite her predicament she ended up laughing. "Sing, or you're going to perish," Lihua said to her.

"Let's make a quartet," Chunhua suggested. The four souls on the rock sang for quite a while at the top of their voices. After an interminable period of time, Hinata felt that the iron grip on her leg was gradually letting go of her. She had not dared to look down at her ankle, fearful of the damage she might find. Soon enough her curiosity grew too great, and she did. It wasn't a trap. It was a dark head-like shape that was biting her.

Only a supreme effort of will kept her from fainting. She felt she was getting sick and started to bend over, going fetal, but something with superhuman strength grabbed her painlessly by the elbows and the nape of her neck and did not let her move further than a few inches. She got sick all over the rock face in front of her, and she heard Naruto coughing and choking somewhere to her right. Her revulsion was so complete that she began to fall in a faint.

Chunhua sprinkled her face with some water from the small gourd she always carried with her when they went walking. The water slid under her collar, and the coldness restoring her physical balance, but did not affect the force that was holding her by her elbows and neck.

They sang another song, and this one moved Hinata immensely, reminding her of the ethos of the warrior that Lihua always drilled into her. Warriors live with death at their side, and from the knowledge that death is with them they draw the courage to face anything. _The worst that could happen to us is that we die,_ Lihua would always say._ And since certain death is already our fate as humans, we are free, since those who have lost everything no longer have anything to fear._

Hinata was so moved by emotion that she walked over to her teachers and embraced them, trying to express her boundless gratitude and admiration for what they had done for her. She realized that nothing was holding her any longer. Without a word Lihua took her arm and guided her to sit on the flat rock.

"The show is just about to begin now," Chunhua said in a jovial tone as she tried to find a comfortable position to sit, pulling Naruto down at her side. "You've just paid your admission ticket. It's all over the rock over there," she mentioned. She looked at Hinata and both her teachers began to laugh. "Let's move a little further over," Chunhua jibed. "I don't appreciate pukers." Her laughing expression turned serious. "But don't get to close to the edge, the old seers are not yet through with their tricks."

For a moment Hinata was embarrassed, then all that went away when she saw a group of people coming towards them across the stark terrain. She could not make out their shapes clearly, only distinguishing a mass of human figures moving in the semi-darkness. In order not to face what she was seeing, she tried to rationalize it by thinking that they must have attracted attention with their loud singing and the owners of the land they were on were coming to investigate. Lihua tapped her on the shoulder and pointed in the direction of the group with her chin

"Those four are the old seers and the rest of their allies."

Before Hinata could say a word, she heard a swishing sound right behind her. She quickly turned around in a state of total alarm, and her movement was so sudden that Lihua's warning came too late.

"Don't turn around!" She heard her teacher yell. Her words were only in the background now, they did not mean anything to Hinata. On turning around she saw three grotesquely deformed men climbing up on the rock right behind her. They were crawling towards her with their mouths open in nightmarish grimaces and their arms outstretched to grab her.

She tried to scream at the top of her lungs, but no sound came out. She automatically flinched away, rolling out of their reach and onto the ground. As she stood up, Lihua jumped to her side at the very same moment that a horde of men, led by those Lihua had pointed out, descended on her like vultures. They were actually squeaking like bats or rats. Hinata yelled in terror, and this time she was able to let out a piercing cry. Lihua pulled her out of their clutches and back onto the rock.

"Don't turn around to look, no matter how scared you are," she said sternly. "On this rock the allies cannot touch you physically, but they certainly can scare you and make you fall to the ground. On the ground, however, the allies can hold anybody down. If you were to fall on the ground by the place where the seers were buried, you would be at their mercy. They would rip you apart while their allies held you."

"We did not tell you this," Chunhua added in a quiet voice, "because we had hoped you would see and understand it by yourself."

Hinata had the unbearable sensation that the grotesque men were just behind her, reaching over her

"Keep yourself calm," Lihua ordered. "Focus your attention on the four men at the head of the group in front of us."

The instant she focused her eyes on them, as if on cue, they all advanced to the edge of the flat rock. They stopped there and began hissing like serpents, walking back and forth. Their movement seemed to be synchronized. It was so consistent and orderly that it seemed to be mechanical. It was as if they were following a repetitive pattern, aimed at mesmerizing her.

"Don't gaze at them, dear," Chunhua said to Hinata as if she were talking to a child. _Genjutsu,_ Hinata realized. _Probably_. She hoped it was something so mundane as genjutsu. The men stopped at once, seemingly confused, then one of them jumped onto the rock. "Watch out! That one is a seer!" Chunhua exclaimed.

"What are we going to do?" Naruto asked, nearly yelling.

"We could start singing again," Lihua replied matter-of-factly. Hinata's fear reached its apex just as the man jumped back down to the ground. "Don't pay any more attention to these clowns," Lihua said. "Let's talk as usual." She looked over, and Hinata recognized quite well the subtle disappointment in her teacher's eyes.

"We came here for your enlightenment, and you're failing miserably," Lihua commented. "Reorganize yourself. In this heightened state of awareness, you shouldn't feel such fear."

"Even if you say that, I'm more afraid than I've ever been before," Hinata said miserably.

"You're wrong, " Lihua retorted. "It's just that your first attention is confused and doesn't want to give up control. I have a feeling that you could walk right up to those creatures and face them, and they wouldn't do a thing to you."

"But, I don't..."

Lihua laughed. "Sooner or later you'll have to cure yourself of your insanity." She looked intensely at her pupil. "The decision to take the initiative and face up to those four seers is far less crazy than the idea that you're seeing them at all."

Hinata heard all this with perfect clarity, but she wasn't really paying attention, she was so terrified by the things surrounding the rock. That was when she noticed that the sky had changed yet again, getting brighter, as if it was already dawn. She felt strange. A small part of her was still overcome with terror, but the rest of her was completely indifferent. Curiosity made her stand, and she walked to the edge of the rock.

"Hinata!" Naruto's strangled cry was only a soft noise in the background as she hopped down to the rocky soil. When she reached the group, she realized that Lihua had been right, they were not really men. Only four of them resembled men, but they were not men either, just strange creatures with huge yellow eyes. The others were just shapes that were propelled by the four that resembled men.

She felt extraordinarily sad for those creatures with yellow eyes. She tried to touch them, but could not find them. Some sort of wind scooped them away. She looked for Lihua and Chunhua, but they were not there. It was pitch-black again, the dead of night. When her eyes had adjusted, she saw that Lihua was standing in front of her. She did not see Chunhua or Naruto.

"Let's go home," Lihua said. "We have a long walk ahead of us." They walked along they the rocky ground in silence for a while, the quiet of night broken only by the ruffle of Lihua's hair whenever a stray breeze caught it. This part of the country was unnaturally quiet, as if the animal life knew what had buried itself there, hundreds of years ago. "You performed well tonight," the woman finally said, glancing sidelong at her student. "Especially during the last part." Hinata tried not to let her surprise show, and fought down the sudden burst of pride and happiness that would surely bring more torture of her teacher saw it.

"What do you mean?" she asked hesitantly.

"The shift of your point of attention is marked by a change in light," Lihua said, seeming to ignore the question. "In the daytime, light becomes very dark, but at night..." she faced Hinata, but while the girl's mouth opened and closed several time, she said nothing. "What happens when it's dark?" Lihua asked. She was still reeling from what had happened, and she had no idea if it was even what the woman was talking about, but the need to for once be right overpowered her hesitance.

"It gets lighter?" she asked, then blushed.

"That's right," Lihua said with a smile. It seemed to Hinata that her teacher was aware of her mental state, and was giving her a chance to recover. She felt embarrassed to have to be treated with kid gloves, but she didn't give any indication of this to her teacher. With a start, she realized that her heart was still racing, and she was covered in a cold sweat. She put a hand over her heart, desperately willing it to slow down.

"Yes, at night, it begins to look like twilight, as you saw," Lihua continued. "You performed two shifts by yourself, aided only by your animal fright. In fact, the only thing I didn't like was how you indulged in your fear, even after you realized that, as a warrior, you have nothing to fear. Why do something like that?" she turned a questioning look on her young charge.

"How did you know?" Hinata asked, her physical state forgotten as coldness gripped her. "I mean, I didn't mean it like that," she said quickly, trying to avoid a line of thought that would bring further probing. "I-"

"Because you were free," Lihua interrupted, looking around at the miles of untouched land stretching in all directions. "When fear disappears, all the ties that bind you dissolve. One moment, an ally was holding onto your foot, the next, you walked right out there and tried to physically touch them." She looked mischievously at Hinata. "The ally holding your foot was attracted by your fear, you know. It's what they live for. It's what feeds them." Hinata blushed more deeply, realizing what was bothering her.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"Whatever for?" Lihua asked.

"I'm..." she swallowed against the shame she felt. "Even though you've taught me all this, I only did what I did by accident." She felt a tear slip down her cheek, and hated how weak she felt. "You deserve a better student."

Lihua put her hand to Hinata's cheek, gently turning her head to face her, rubbing a finger against the wetness near her eyes.

"I deserve the person I chose," she said, "no more, no less."

Hinata couldn't keep from smiling, and turned away, blinking rapidly, trying to keep her eyes from watering.

"What happened back there, on the rock?" she finally asked.

"Well," Lihua began, speaking as if Hinata wouldn't like her answer, "the allies came out to see you. By themselves, they have very low energy, and always need our help. The four seers you saw tonight were powerful enough that they collected twelve allies in all."

The more Lihua talked, the harder it was for Hinata to think. It felt like there was a massive log-jam somewhere in her brain, and it was keeping her from thinking clearly. She shook her head in confusion. "To be able to control the allies even now, does that mean those seers are actually alive?" she finally asked. Lihua laughed, shaking her head in disbelief.

"It's time for you to shift your point of attention just a little bit," she said wryly. "I can't talk to you when you're in your 'I'm an idiot' stage." Before Hinata could say anything in reply, she felt a sharp impact on the crest of her left hip bone and gasped in pain. A similar impact in the center of her back below her shoulder blades nearly immobilized her, then she saw Lihua reach around and hit her sharply on her pectoral muscle just above her right breast.

The woman had hit her in the other two places as well, she realized. The pain she was expecting never came, however. Her ears immediately began to buzz, and she felt something warm on her upper lip. Reaching up, she realized blood was trickling from her nose. She looked at Lihua, but instead of the surprise and fear she expected, it felt like something came loose in her mind, as if some flow of energy had been blocked, and suddenly began to move again. She almost shook her head at the stupidity of her previous question, ignoring her nose, which had stopped bleeding. Lihua nodded approvingly.

"What were the seers an their allies after?" Hinata asked after a moment's thought.

"Nothing," Lihua replied. "We were the ones who were after them. The seers, of course, had already noticed your chakra from the first time they saw you. They came today ready to feast on you."

"So, the seers really are alive," Hinata said hesitantly. "They're alive in the same way allies are alive, aren't they?"

"That's exactly right," Lihua answered. "They cannot possibly be alive as you and I are. That would be preposterous. You see, allies are far far longer-lived than we are. The ancient seers knew this, so they patterned their own life energy after their allies' life energy, and eventually went bodily to that other world you saw in the mirror. They are protected from death by being in that other world, and because of having bodies like their allies. When those seers discovered that you could shift your point of attention, they took off like bats out of hell."

"Why?" Hinata asked.

"They were afraid that death might come through with you if they dragged you to their world to eat you up."

"Then," Hinata swallowed, "does that mean I physically went to their world when we were on that rock?"

"No, you didn't," Lihua answered, "but you have been there before, the last time we were on a similar rock. That day you went all the way to their world. The problem is that you love to act stupid, so you can't remember it at all." Lihua looked away for a moment, before turning back, her expression brighter. "I'm sure that it's the teacher's presence," she continued, her tone light. "It makes people act dumb." She chuckled. "When my teacher was still around, I was dumber than I am now. I'm convinced that when I'm no longer here, you'll be capable of remembering everything. Still, no matter what, I needed to show you the death defiers."

She turned to face her pupil with a smile.

"I'll tell you exactly what happened. Chunhua and I lured them to the outskirts of our world. What you did at first was a deep lateral shift of consciousness, which allowed you to see them as people. That's very good, because a normal person can't see them at all. But, at the end there, you correctly made the shift that allowed you to see the death defiers and their allies as they are. Sometimes," she said with an impish smile, "you really surprise me."

Hinata fairly glowed under the rare praise.

* * *

It felt like the worst hangover Naruto had ever come off of, even if that list was pretty short. He was not an alcoholic, but he had drunk enough to know that the demon in him neutralized the stuff pretty fast, so he had an idea of how bad he would have felt without its help now. The trees swam, the ground felt like a trampoline and his head felt like it was full of angry sparks. Someone was pulling on his arm, almost to the point of dislocating it, and his feet were on automatic.

"Where're we going?" he slurred. The question was just a reflex, but it all came rushing back. He glanced over just to make sure. The raven-haired girl dragging him through the trees was someone he'd severely miscalculated. Her expression might as well have been chiseled in stone, and he was sure neither he nor any of her teachers had ever seen her with such a hardened cynical expression. Hell, he himself was still shaking from that vision or whatever it was she had put him through. If he figured right, she had been through months, maybe years of such torture, and all when she was younger than when he had even been thinking about being a ninja. He couldn't imagine what that would do to a person.

"We must find a mirror," she spoke, and whether it was an answer to his question he didn't know, or if she was even talking to him at all, or just talking to herself. They were running from a pursuit team.

"We're not going to find one out here in the forest. Why d'you need one anyway?" He didn't expect an answer. To be honest he wasn't sure he was even seeing what she was seeing any more. She had more of the drug in her anyway, even if she was acclimated to it.

"Because I am unsure if I can perform the technique without it."

Anticipation flared within him. "Technique?" he said, licking his lips. His throat was horribly dry and scratchy, he figured it was probably one of the side-effects of the drug. "What kind of technique?" Of the tantalizingly brief moments he had seen and fought against Hinata, he had rarely seen her consciously attempt a technique, but from watching her unconscious and subconscious defense mechanisms, he was excited. He took a moment to look at her, from her short streaming raven hair to the frightening set of her eyes. He was scared and excited. It was the first time he had felt this way.

"A water transportation technique." Hinata was looking around as they traveled.

Naruto had never heard of such a thing. His mind raced. "Well, you're not going to find one out here in the forest," he argued. What kind of technique required a mirror? He could only guess that some arcane genjutsu might require something like that, but he had no idea. "Is there any way you can do it without the mirror?" She paused, coming to a stop. He stopped, taken aback. It was strange to be looked at like that by someone as shy as Hinata was supposed to be. To be looked at and found wanting. "Any way at all?"

"Naruto..." Anger flared in her eyes before she glanced away. He felt an answering anger and almost snapped at her, then he noticed. She wasn't angry at him, she was angry at herself. He could see that now. "I'm sorry, okay?" She turned back towards him, eyes shimmering with tears. "I'm not like my teacher, I can't just say a few words, do something, and make it all work out! I'm sorry, Naruto-sama."

"Huh, well..." it took him aback to hear her call him that. Moments before he could have sworn she was his superior in every way. "I mean, how does it work anyway? The technique..."

Hinata's eyes clouded over, she was obviously lost in thought. "There are levels, realms that you don't see, but that doesn't make them any less real. Water can act as a connection between them-"

"Wait, you lost me," he tried to slow her down without dampening her willingness. He tried and failed to come up with a proper question, it was so alien a concept. "How come I haven't even heard of anything like this?" He knew there were a lot of secret techniques, but usually at least something was known about them, even if it was just a few words and ideas. "How does it work? Can anyone do it, or-" He cut off as Hinata shook her head in frustration.

"Like I said, I'm not a teacher! I... I don't even remember everything myself! All I know is I was trained for a long time before I even got a look at something like this, and even then she would tell me that I was being given the shortened version of training, as if there was never enough time. When I failed, and I failed a lot, she would-" Hinata looked away, embarrassed, "she would do things to me, and suddenly I'd understand."

"Do things?" Naruto scratched his head in his habitual way. It was one of many things he did to convince people he was stupid. In this case he really was stumped.

"Usually she would touch me, or..."

"You mean like sexually-"

"No!" She swatted at him and he stumbled back.

"Geez, alright, just asking, gimme a break, I don't know anything here!" He rubbed his shoulder, looking at her askance. "What'd you just do there?" His arm was stinging.

"Oh," she glanced at her fingers, where he could still see a faint blue glow of chakra, "sorry." She blushed. "The Hyuga clan has the blood-line limit ability to push chakra out of any part of our bodies," she explained. "I didn't mean to do that..."

"Oh! So, that's what you meant when you said your teacher touched you?"

"What? No-" she stopped moving, a look of sudden confusion on her face. "I mean, I don't know. I guess I never really thought about it like that." Hinata's expression had grown thoughtful.

"So do you think she's a Hyuga then? Or has that blood-line limit-"

"Stop asking questions."

Her sharp words made him fall silent. It was definitely odd being talked to like that by someone who in his mind was as shy as they came. He could see the wheels turning in her head, and he didn't want to disturb her in any case, even if he was almost to the point of jumping from one foot to the other in his nervousness. He was no tracker, but even he could sense the approaching search team.

"Hinata-"

"Come with me."

Then they were off. He had to push himself to keep up with her, they were traveling so fast. They abruptly changed direction, and he was about to gather his breath to ask her where they were headed when she suddenly hit the ground up ahead and jogged to a halt. The tree-line ended and a river spread out before them. It was more like a stream than a river, but he could feel the relief coming off her, as well as the tension. He came to a stop behind her and she turned, her face a mask of seriousness.

"I might be able to help you." She gave a grim smile. "This might be one area that I and my teacher really are equals." She reached out, taking his hand in hers. "You know..." He felt a touch of warmth in her attitude and drew closer to her. "Did you know that the hand and the face share almost the exact same number of tenketsu points? They're even linked in a way." The warmth he had felt had been replaced by playfulness, it was the only way he could describe it. "Don't back out now, this was your idea," she said teasingly.

"Aah," he sweated furiously, "mind telling me what my idea was?" He had a guess, but he wasn't sure he liked it.

"And this point here corresponds to your eyes..." she held his hand in one of hers and drew the other across his palm. He felt a brief stinging sensation and jumped, but managed not to pull his hand away.

"-a way to teach me what I need to know so I can do the technique with you?" he said disbelievingly. He could see where she was going, she could do something like what she had described her teacher doing, literally making him understand by imprinting it into his body using her knowledge of tenketsu points.

"No." She giggled, and he shivered. "But I can at least teach you enough so that you might not die."

"Right, about that-" Then the world changed. Daylight changed to dusk and everything around him took on a sharper edge. "Wow..." The swiftly moving river fascinated him, the water dancing and swirling. He imagined he could see the molecules as they slid over each other. The river was like one giant being made of cells. It was something physical, like a tree, or a door. A door. For a sliver of a second he caught what Hinata was talking about. It was just like a doorway to a house, a house he had never seen before, that was all. He watched as Hinata bent down on the ground next to the living river, tracing a square with her finger. It shimmered.

Then things changed back. He realized she wasn't holding his hand any longer. Obviously, because she had bent down to draw on the river. Now the water had gone back to being water and it was midday again. He blinked, staring at the water, trying to bring back to mind the glowing doorway he had seen her draw. She pulled him to the water's edge and he hesitated.

"Umm, can you do that hand thing again? I've lost it..." His vision was beginning to swim.

"No, you'd likely fall unconscious if I did it again. Or worse." She took his hand, and he squeezed it, hoping she'd do it anyway. She placed her other hand in the water, her thumb extended at a right angle away from her fingers. "Do you see it?" she looked at him curiously. "This is the doorway, I'm touching the top left corner." She didn't wait for an answer. "Put your hand there on the bottom right corner."

"Aah, well," he glanced behind him, looking for their pursuers. He could feel her hand tighten. "Right, right. Okay..." He put his other hand down uncertainly, trying to mimic her hand position.

"Down," she instructed. "Further to the right. See it? That's it. Good..."

He still didn't see, but he was afraid to tell her. If she did the technique now, would she leave him behind? He had to tell her. "Hinata, I don't see-" That was when he noticed. "Hey! Why can't I see our reflections?"

"Good." Hinata smiled.

"Wait. Oh, there they are..." he blinked, shaking his head. He must have simply missed them before, or been looking at he wrong angle.

"Don't look at either of our reflections directly," she commanded.

"What? But-" Then he noticed that the water between their hands was suspiciously smooth. He glanced to the side, but the rest of the river was flowing rapidly as usual, full of eddies and swirls as it went around rocks and over the ground.

"Don't look away!"

"Yes ma'am, you got it," he muttered, returning his eyes to the patch of water between their hands. It was still smooth as glass. He heard a tree rustle in the distance, and knew it was from a ninja landing on its branches. He pushed the distraction from his mind. In his peripheral vision Hinata was still as a statue. Every moment that went by he expected to feel the bite of a kunai at his neck. He was about to ask Hinata how long it was going to take when he found he couldn't move. It was like a giant force had his whole body in a vice grip. The patch of water between their hands seemed to grow from about a foot to several yards in size, but he hadn't felt his hand move, and Hinata was still close by his side, her hand gripped in his. All thoughts of his pursuers left him at that moment.

Suddenly he was aware of a presence in the water. It was like a formless mass that creeped him out. It felt like he was looking at a man with no face. He opened his mouth but no sound came out.

"Try to control what you feel!" Hinata yelled at him. "It's attracted by your fear!"

"Now she tells me," he groused. The terror he felt wasn't even logical. He perceived no direct threat, he just felt a primal animal fear of what he was seeing, as if this thing were his opposite.

"We're just as alien to it as it is to us," Hinata explained, still shouting to be heard over the water's rush. The sky was beginning to darken again, or maybe it was just his vision, he couldn't tell. "Wait..." Hinata suddenly lit up. "I know this one!" She stared at the faceless being in the water, a rapturous expression on her face "This is the one my teacher told me about!" He could no longer feel the ground beneath him, it was as if they were floating down a dark tunnel towards a creature that no longer looked like a man. His mind could get no frame of reference for what the thing was. He floated helplessly as Hinata, the only bedrock of surety he could count on, suddenly dragged him forward. He couldn't even cry out.

* * *

The four members of Konaha's search team number seven hit the ground as one. "Hey!" One of them pointed, "there they are!"

"What're they doing?"

Three men and one woman jogged towards the two figures huddled at the water's edge. The two figures that were slumping over, into the water.

"Hey! You two! Stop...!" The water was roiling violently.

"They'll drown...!"

Then the team noticed that the only one small section of the river was misbehaving.

"-the hell?"

The water next to the bank was actually bowing upwards, as if something were coming up out of it in slow motion. Two of the men and the one woman stumbled back, leaving one to stand alone, his hands coming together to form a seal.

"-get back!" one of his team-mates called. The water was beginning to deform into a shapeless mass.

His hands blurred through seals. "Water release, Great Moses Technique!"

The river split in half, drenching the man, and eventually his companions. The two halves of the river rejoined, and the river iteself soon resumed its normal course. After a few moments they walked back up to where he stood triumphantly, his hands on his hips.

The woman was wringing out her hair. "You could have been killed!" she spat, but her eyes held not a little admiration.

"How many names are you going to make up for that technique?" another of them asked, amusement touching his voice. "You call it something different every time."

The last walked up, but said nothing. They all knew the banter was to cover just how disturbed they all were. It was the first time any of them had witnessed a pair of Genin perform something like a flawless shunshin get-a-way. On top of it all, neither of them should have been water-technique users, which made it even more strange.

"They got away somehow. We've got a lot of explaining to do."

* * *

Naruto awoke to a primal terror that had him thrashing around, desperate to escape what he knew not.

"Naruto!" Someone was grabbing him, holding him tightly. "Stop struggling! Be still!" He knew that voice. It both excited and terrified him. But it wasn't the same terror he remembered... from before. He couldn't remember where he was, or what he had been doing. His vision slowly cleared to show Hinata's worried face looking down on him. She was holding him down. He stopped struggling, even though his subconscious was still screaming at him to run like the devil was after him.

"Where are we?" He sat up, looking around and wincing. As he moved the terror slowly subsided. The sun hung low in the sky, a great orange orb over the distant rock formations staining them a blood-red.

"Earth country."

"Really?" he glanced at her, surprised. "You're sure?"

"Yes." Her confident persona was slowly crumbling.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He moved closer to her. She was turning a dark shade of red.

"You don't recognize this place at all?" She looked at him momentarily, then looked away, completely embarrassed.

"No. should I?"

She pointed mutely. He followed where she was pointing. In the distance was a large rock.

"This is the place, the one you saw from my training."

"Oh!" It was coming back to him. "Oh..." She looked like she was going to collapse, either from exhaustion or embarrassment or both. He caught her as she wavered, and she gratefully leaned against him. It took him a few moments to realize he was holding a girl close to him, basically hugging her. They stayed that way for a short while. "Hey," he breathed, "it's nothing to be embarrassed about, you should hear what Kakashi does to us for our training..." Admittedly it was nothing like what he had witness Hinata's teacher do to her, but it was all he could think of to say. After a minute or so he began to get self-conscious, but he didn't want to let go.

"We should leave," Hinata finally mumbled.

"Why?"

"Because it's getting dark," she explained. He could hear from her voice that she was no longer as embarrassed. "This area is one big trap-array, remember?" She looked up at him, and he tried to memorize her soft features. It was like he was holding something prickly black and dangerous. It made him feel alive. She smiled softly. "I've learned the lesson of this place already, and I'm confident I could escape, but I might not have the power to shield you as well."


	11. I'm Real

The whispering trees mocked her, but Hinata payed them no mind. Things were going well. Too well, in fact. She had already come off the high of what was supposed to be the second worst potion she had. The only explanation that made sense was her sharing it with Naruto had lessened its effects on her. Not physically, of course, since she had given him so little. But psychologically he had helped her through the worst of it, unknowingly giving her support when she needed it most.

She glanced over to where he was slumped against a tree dead to the world. The last rays of sun slipped over the horizon in the distance, though the tree-line hid most of the sunset. The problem was that she now had a tantalizing sliver of hope. She idly made three hand-signs and sent out a pulse of chakra. An errant breeze solidified into a form that resembled Hinata. The simulacrum drifted over and lightly touched her lips to Naruto's cheek. The slumbering boy flinched then reached out to pull whatever-it-was closer. Hinata released the seal and her clone evaporated. Naruto flopped over onto the ground, blinking dully in the low evening light.

"Oh, hey it's almost night-time huh," he mumbled sheepishly. "Must've dozed off." He touched his cheek. "Hey, why do I have this weird feeling?" He eyed her suspiciously, but she said nothing. To his eyes she had obviously not moved for hours. "Oh well, I'll set up camp..."

While he did so Hinata turned back to stare into the darkness, her grin melting away. She was as lucid as she could ever remember being, which frightened her. Under the influence of hallucinogens things could be explained away. That shadow over there by the trees wasn't something to be scared of, it was just a figment of her feverish mind, and those faint voices were something to hope for, not something to bring sheer terror.

She clenched her fist then released it, feeling for any subtle shaking or weakness. Her strength and energy were back, and she could use her techniques. By her teacher's standards she was pathetically weak and behind, but at least she was comparable with her fellow ninjas. By their standards she was above average.

It wasn't all bad. She had already discovered that she could now go into trance on her own, without having to rely further on the dangers of her hallucinogens. With enough time she had a very good chance of recovering all of her training, but that didn't keep her from worrying, from having that nagging feeling that she was too late. It felt like something had either already happened or was happening now that she should have been a part of, if only she could remember.

She reached into a hidden pocket, retrieving the last vial she had taken with her. The liquid inside was a deep black that seemed to absorb what little light there was. There was no reason at all to take it. Everything was great. She could fight now. With time she could remember everything her teacher had taught her. There was no reason at all to subject herself to possible death. There was a good chance she would win the upcoming fight anyway, and even if she didn't, it didn't matter. Being a Chuunin or not was the furthest thing from her mind. The most important thing was remembering her training, and she was now able to do that as well.

So why did she feel so desperate? She shoved the small vial back into her clothes. Slowly the tension faded, slowly her heartbeat returned to normal. Using trance, her path of remembering would be slow. If something was happening now, if her teacher was waiting for her to remember and show up, that was the only reason to take the black. But it was so frustrating, because she had no way of knowing that. She knew well that if such a thing was taking place and she didn't show up, her teacher wouldn't hesitate to leave without her. It would be her own fault after all.

"Hey, the tent's up, I'm going to sleep!" Naruto called, breaking her from her reverie.

"Alright," she answered quietly. He had already closed the flap of the tent. She got to her feet and walked over to the tent. As strong as that desperate feeling was that she was missing something, it felt even more wrong for her to take the black right now. She had no choice but to wait and hope she remembered something in time.

She slipped out of her shoes and burrowed into her sleeping bag. Naruto was already asleep again. Making herself comfortable, she interlocked her hands as she had been taught, and let herself drift. Soon enough she could feel the soundless pop that indicated a shift of consciousness.

* * *

To sit in silence with Lihua was one of the most enjoyable experiences Hinata knew. It was late afternoon, and there was a pleasant breeze. They were sitting in the backyard area of the house Lihua used when she was in Leaf Village. The sun was at their backs, the fading light creating exquisite shades of green in the big trees surrounding them.

"Today we're going to discuss a very serious topic," Lihua said. "We'll begin by talking about the energy body. We all have one. It's a conglomeration of energy fields that is a mirror image of the energy fields that make up your physical body."

"So we have a physical body, and then an energy body that is its exact duplicate?" Hinata asked.

"It's a mirror image," Lihua reminded her. "There are small differences. The energy body is smaller, more compact than the luminous sphere of the physical body. So these two bodies are connected by a strange force, or to be more precise they're compressed together even though they try to stay apart."

"Why do they try to stay apart?"

"It's just the nature of things," Lihua said dismissively. "The point it that through discipline it is possible for anyone to begin to negate this force and bring their energy body closer to their physical body. Normally the distance between the two is enormous."

"How do we do that?" Hinata asked.

"That is exactly what your training has been for, among other things." Lihua smiled. "Once the energy body is within a certain range, which varies for each of us individually, anyone, through discipline, can forge it into an exact replica of their physical body – that is to say, a three-dimensional solid being. Similarly, through the same processes of discipline, anyone can forge their three-dimensional solid physical body into a perfect replica of their energy body – that is to say, an ethereal charge of energy invisible to the human eye, as all energy is. I'm sure you can see the possibilities for quick travel involved with this change."

Darkness had descended quickly, and the foliage of the trees that had been glowing green a little while before was now very dark and heavy. Lihua noticed Hinata's attention. "If you look carefully into the darkness of the foliage without focusing your eyes, if you look at it from the corner of your eyes, you will see a fleeting shadow crossing your field of vision. This is the appropriate time of day for doing what I am asking you to do," she said. "It takes a moment to engage the necessary attention in you to do it. Don't stop until you catch that fleeting black shadow."

After a few moments Hinata did see a strange fleeting black shadow projected on the foliage of the trees. It was either one shadow going back and forth or various fleeting shadows moving from left to right or right to left or straight up in the air. She knew it wasn't the trees moving and casting shadows, because the wind had suddenly gone completely silent. They looked like fat black fish to her, enormous fish, as if gigantic swordfish were flying in the air. At first the sight engrossed her, then it scared her. It became too dark to see the foliage, yet she could still see the fleeting black shadows.

"I see them," Hinata said, her voice trembling. "What are they, Lihua-sensei?"

"Ah, that's the universe at large," she answered, "incommensurable, nonlinear, outside the realm of syntax. The ancient practitioners of our line were the first ones to see them as you're seeing them, and they saw them as energy that flows in the universe. In fact, they discovered something transcendental." She stopped talking and looked at Hinata. Her pauses were perfectly placed. She always stopped talking when Hinata was hanging by a thread.

"What did they discover?" Hinata asked. She wasn't sure she wanted an answer, but she had long since discovered that it was better to know and tremble, than to not know.

"They discovered that we have a companion for life," Lihua said, as clearly as she could. "We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are now its prisoners. The predator is our lord and master, it has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so."

It was very dark around them, and that seemed to curtail any protest from Hinata. If it had been daylight, perhaps she would have taken it lightly and gotten into an argument with her teacher, like she usually did.

"It's pitch black around us," Lihua said, "but if you look out of the corner of your eye, you will still see fleeting shadows jumping all around you."

She was right. Hinata still saw them. Their movement was even making her dizzy. Lihua turned on the light on her porch, and that seemed to dissipate everything.

"You have arrived, by your effort alone, to what is called the topic of topics," Lihua said.

It took a while for Hinata to get her breath back. "How?" she finally asked. "Why can I see them now? I never saw them before-"

"You never _noticed_ them before," Lihua corrected her. "When pointed out, they are so obvious that, as you just saw, they become visible almost instantly."

"But why?" Hinata was breathless. She doubted she would ever be able to sleep in a dark room again. "How? There has to be a reason."

"Oh, there is a reason," Lihua answered. "The simplest explanation in the world. Did I not tell you they are predators? We are food to them, and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance. Just as we rear chickens in chicken coops, the predators rear us in human coops. Their food is always available to them."

Hinata could not express her profound sense of unease and discontentment, but her body moved on its own, shaking from head to toe. "No, no, no, no," she heard herself saying. "That's not true, it can't be true."

"Why not?" Lihua asked. "Because it frightens you? Because it angers you?"

"Yes!" Hinata answered. "It... It's horrible!"

"Well, you haven't heard everything yet," Lihua answered. "Wait a bit longer and see how you feel. You won't be able to leave until I'm finished, not because I'm holding you here, but because something in you will prevent you from leaving, while another part of you is going to go truthfully berserk, so brace yourself!"

Hinata knew it was true, that she was about to hear a secret of the universe that was of absolute importance, even if a part of her wanted nothing more than to flee from her teacher and never return. Unfortunately she would always know that there was something out there slowly eating away at her until she died. Lihua began her speech.

"The predators I've just told you about have given us our systems of beliefs, our ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up our hopes and expectations and dreams of success or failure. They have given us covetousness, greed, and cowardice. It is the predators who make us complacent, routinary, and egomaniacal."

"How?" Hinata asked. "Do they whisper it all into our ears while we sleep?" Her voice sounded rhetorical to her ears, as if she were making fun of her teacher. Normally she would never have talked like that, but somehow something about what her teacher was saying angered her.

"No, they don't do it that way. That's idiotic!" Lihua retorted with a laugh. "They are infinitely more efficient and organized than that. They've done something more stupendous that that. Or horrendous, from our point of view. They gave us their mind! Do you understand?" Lihua asked. "The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The predators' mind is contradictory and morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now. Though you have never suffered from true hunger," she went on, "you have food anxiety, which is none other than the anxiety of the predator who fears that any moment now its actions will be uncovered and food is going to be denied. Through the mind, which, after all, is their mind, the predators inject into the lives of human beings whatever is convenient for them. And they ensure, in this manner, a degree of security to act as a buffer against their fear."

"They... eat us," Hinata murmured, as if just realizing it. "But how? How do they do it?"

Lihua smiled broadly, as if pleased that she had asked such a question, setting her up for the punch. "As infants," she explained, "we are covered by a luminous glowing coat of energy over our entire being, and it is this glowing coat of awareness that is what the predators consume. It is all invisible to us, so there is nothing to give us warning that we are being fed off of, other than a kind of tiredness that overwhelms us as we get older. By the time we reach adulthood, all that is left of that glowing cover is a narrow fringe that goes from the ground to the top of the toes. That fringe permits mankind to continue living, but only barely. As if in a dream."

Hinata was almost numb with horror, but then Lihua made the most damaging statement she had made so far.

"Do you know what this narrow fringe of awareness is?" She blinked expectantly, but Hinata shook her head. "It is the center of self-importance and self-reflection, which is the only point of awareness left to us. The predators create flares of awareness in us that they proceed to consume in a ruthless fashion. They give us inane problems that force those flares of awareness to rise, and in this manner they keep us alive in order for them to be fed with the energetic flare of our everyday concerns."

What Lihua was saying was so devastating that at that point Hinata actualy got sick to her stomach. Swallowing against the queasy feeling, she wondered light-headedly if anyone else she knew had ever been exposed to such ideas. Lihua seemed to read her mind.

"My teacher was even more ruthless in teaching me," she said matter-of-factly. "I'm being easy on you compared to what I went through."

"But, but what can we do about this," Hinata asked, barely able to make the words come out. "Can we even do anything about it? What about everyone else..."

"There's nothing we can do about the predators themselves," Lihua answered in a grave sad voice. "All we can do is discipline ourselves to the point where they will not touch us. We can do nothing for our fellow humans. How could you ask them to go through the same disciplines I put you through? They'll laugh and make fun of you, and the more aggressive ones will beat the shit out of you. Not so much because they don't believe it. Down in the depths of every human being, there's an ancestral, visceral knowledge about the predators' existence."

Hinata felt another wave of threatening sensation. Lihua was doing something to her, mysteriously positive and terribly negative at the same time. She sensed it as an attempt to cut a thin film that seemed to be glued to her. The woman's eyes were fixed on hers in an unblinking stare. She moved her eyes away and began to talk without looking at her anymore.

"Whenever doubts plague you to a dangerous point," she said, "do something pragmatic about it. Turn off the light. Pierce the darkness; find out what you can see." She got up to turn off the lights, and Hinata grabbed her arm to stop her.

"No," she said, "please don't turn off the lights. I'm doing okay." She felt an unusual fear of the darkness, something she had never felt before. The mere thought of it made her pant, breathing rapidly.

"You saw the fleeting shadows against the trees," Lihua said, sitting back against her chair. "That's pretty good. I'd like you to see them inside this room. You're not really seeing anything. You're merely catching fleeting images. You have enough energy for that."

Hinata feared that her teacher would get up anyway and turn off the lights, but she was so busy thinking about what the woman had said that she didn't pay any attention to when she suddenly got up and really did turn them out. Two seconds later Hinata was screaming her head off. Not only did she catch a glimpse of those fleeting images, she heard them buzzing by her hears. Lihua doubled up with laughter as she turned on the lights.

"Look at you! On the one hand you don't want to believe me, but in the darkness you can't help but believe me. If you keep this internal fight up, you're going to swell up like a toad and burst." She sat down and continued her teaching. "The ancient practitioners of our line called what you see the flyer, because it leaps through the air. It's not a pretty sight. It's a big shadow, impenetrably dark, a black shadow that jumps through the air, then it lands flat on the ground. They were quite ill at ease with the idea of when it made its appearance on earth. They reasoned that humans must have been complete beings at one point, with stupendous insights, feats of awareness that are mythological legends nowadays. And then everything seems to disappear, and we have now a sedated human being, perfect food for the predator."

Hinata wanted to get angry at her teacher, and call her a paranoid old person, but she couldn't. She'd been around Lihua-sensei too long for that.

"So... so what are you saying?" Hinata asked, her throat physically constricting so that she could hardly breathe.

"What I'm saying is that what we have against us is not a simple predator. It is very smart, and organized. It follows a methodical system to render us useless. Man, the magical being that he is destined to be, is no longer magical. He's an average piece of meat."

Lihua's words were causing a strange bodily reaction in Hinata almost like nausea. It felt as if she were going to get sick to her stomach again. She tried to fight it, but the nausea seemed to come from the center of her bones, not from her stomach. She convulsed, almost going fetal as she slowly fell to the floor. Lihua caught her by the shoulders, shaking her abruptly. This seemed to calm her down at once, and she felt more in control.

"The predator," Lihua said, "which, of course, is an inorganic being, is not altogether invisible to us, as other inorganic beings are. I think as children we do see it and decide it's so horrific that we don't want to think about it. Children, of course, could insist on focusing on the sight, but everybody else around them dissuades them from doing so. The only alternative left for mankind," she continued, "is discipline. Discipline is the only deterrent. But by discipline I don't mean harsh routines. I don't mean waking up every morning at five-thirty and throwing cold water on yourself until you're blue. We understand discipline as the capacity to face with serenity the odds that are not included in our expectations. For us, discipline is an art: the art of facing infinity without flinching, not because we are strong and tough, but because we are filled with awe."

"How would that stop them?" Hinata asked.

"Discipline makes the glowing coat of awareness unpalatable to the flyer," Lihua said, scrutinizing Hinata's face as if to discover any signs of disbelief. "The result is that the predators become confused. An inedible glowing coat of awareness is not part of their cognition, I suppose. After being confused, they don't have any recourse other than refraining from continuing their nefarious task. If the predators don't eat our glowing coat of awareness for a while," she went on, "it'll keep on growing. To simplify things to the extreme, one can say that by means of discipline, we can push the predators away long enough to allow our glowing coat of awareness to grow beyond the level of the toes. Once it goes beyond the level of the toes, it grows back to its natural size.

As awareness reaches levels higher than the toes, tremendous maneuvers of perception become a matter of course. The grand trick of the old practitioners of our line was to burden the flyers' mind with discipline. They found out that if they taxed the flyers' mind with inner silence, the predator would flee, giving to any one of the practitioners involved in this maneuver the total certainty of the mind's foreign origin. The predators come back, I assure you, but not as strong, and a process begins in which the fleeing of the flyers' mind becomes routine, until one day it flees permanently. A sad day indeed! That's the day then you have to rely on your own devices, which are nearly zero. There's no outside influence to tell you what to do, or what to think. My teacher, Yon-seongsaeng, used to warn all her disciples," Lihua continued, "that this was the toughest day in a warrior's life, for the real mind that belongs to us, the sum total of our experience, after a lifetime of domination has been rendered shy, insecure, and shifty. Personally, I would say that the real battle begins at that moment. The rest that I've put you through is merely preparation."

Hinata became genuinely agitated. She wanted to know more, and yet a strange feeling in her clamored for her to stop. It warned her of dark results and punishment, as if she were tampering with the very fabric of reality. With a supreme effort she used her curiosity to banish the strange feeling.

"What – what – what do you mean," Hinata heard herself say, "by taxing the flyers' mind?"

"Discipline taxes the foreign mind to no end," Lihua replied. "They just can't stand it, and so they leave. Eventually for good."

Hinata was overwhelmed by her statements. She believed that Lihua was either certifiably insane or that she was telling her something so awesome that it froze everything in her.

"Lihua-sensei, that, that's crazy!"

Lihua seemed to understand everything Hinata was experiencing. She shook her head from side to side and raised her eyes to the heavens in a gesture of mock despair. "It's so crazy," she said, "that I am going to give the flyers' mind, which you carry inside you, one more jolt. I am going to reveal to you one of the most extraordinary secrets that I know. I am going to describe to you a finding that took practitioners thousands of years to verify and consolidate." She looked at Hinata and smiled maliciously. "The flyers' mind flees forever," she said, "when a warrior succeeds in grabbing on to the vibrating force that holds us together. If you maintain that pressure long enough, the flyers' mind flees in defeat. And that's exactly what you are going to do: hold on to that energy that binds you together."

Hinata had the strangest reaction she could have imagined to such a plain secret. Something in her actually shook, as if it had touched a live wire. She entered into a state of unwarranted fear. Lihua looked at her from head to toe. "Rest assured, that's not your fear," she said consolingly to her troubled student. "It's the flyers' fear, because it knows that you will do exactly as I'm telling you." Her words did not calm Hinata at all. If anything, she felt worse. She was actually convulsing involuntarily, and had no means to stop it. "Don't worry," Lihua said calmly. "I know for a fact that those attacks wear off very quickly. The flyers' mind has no concentration whatsoever."

After a moment, everything stopped, as Lihua had predicted. To say that she was confused would be an understatement. This was the first time ever, with Lihua or alone, in her life that she didn't know whether she was coming or going. She wanted to get up out of the chair and walk around, but she was deathly afraid. She knew rationally that Lihua had revealed to her a basic truth that would free her, but at the same time she was filled with an infantile fear. She breathed deeply as a cold perspiration covered her entire body. Black fleeting shadows jumped all around her wherever she turned, and this time they wouldn't go away. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the arm of the stuffed chair, all strength gone.

"I don't know which way to turn, Lihua-sensei," she said. "I feel like I'm lost."

"It's the fundamental internal struggle," Lihua said. "Down in the depths of you, you know that you are incapable of refusing the agreement that a fundamental part of you, your glowing coat of awareness, is going to serve as a strange source of nourishment to, naturally, strange entities. And another part of you is willing to fight against this situation with all its might. Fight! Don't honor an agreement in which you did not participate. Nobody ever asked you if you would consent to being eaten by beings of a different kind of awareness. Your parents just brought you into this world to be food, like themselves, and that's the end of the story." Lihua stood up form her chair and stretched her arms and legs. "We've been sitting here for hours. It's time to go into the house. I'm gonna eat. Do you want to eat with me?"

"I..." Hinata swallowed against her roiling stomach, "I don't think I could eat," she finally said.

"Well, I think you'd better go to sleep then," Lihua said, going into the house. "This revelation has obviously devastated you."

Hinata didn't need any further coaxing. She followed Lihua into the house, collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep like the dead.

* * *

Hinata awoke with a fright, in a cold sweat, remembering this teaching. Looking up at the moon, she judged that sunrise was still several hours away. Sleepiness rolled over her like a wave as she realized how early it was, but she desperately fought against the sleep, not wanting to be subjected to any more nightmarish teachings about the flyers. After shivering for a few minutes underneath the covers, she reflected on the absurdity of her fears.

_I've already been taught all this,_ she told herself firmly. It was infinitely more dangerous to know only part of the whole puzzle. It would be like being caught between worlds, unable to go forward, and unwilling to go back. Terror still gripped her whenever she closed her eyes, however, even with her resolve to continue. _If I'm going to do this, I might as well face it with all my strength._ She closed her eyes and after some time sleep came for her, but she received no further teaching that night.

She and Naruto continued their journey back towards Konoha. They arrived before high noon and found themselves intercepted by a pair of masked ANBU agents.

* * *

The giant well-lit Hokage's office was more stuffy than it usually felt. Sarutobi frowned. Kakashi fidgeted. Kurenai blinked innocently.

"So," the old man said, making the two Jonins flinch, each in their own way, their movements thoroughly invisible except to those who knew them. "Mind telling me what's going on?"

"Aah-" "Well-" Kakashi and Kurenai both started at the same time.

"You first," Kakashi said nervously.

"Oh no, you can go first," Kurenai insisted.

Sarutobi began to growl. Kurenai cleared her throat nervously.

"To tell the truth," Kurenai began, "the last time I saw Hinata, she was leaving to train for a few days."

Sarutobi turned to Kakashi. "And Naruto?"

"Haha, about that," he laughed nervously, "I left Naruto with Ebisu, they should be training right about now-"

"Enough!" Sarutobi growled. The two fell silent. "What am I going to do with you two?" He sounded more resigned than angry, which relieved the two Jonins.

"About the final tournament," Kakashi said.

"-surely you won't disqualify them!" Kurenai exclaimed. "It's just... they were training, that's all! And now..." She looked towards Kakashi.

"-and now they're back!" he said, nodding furiously.

Sarutobi sighed deeply. He ran a hand down his face tiredly. The two Jonins sweated. "Fine," he ground out. The two did the ninja equivalent of jumping for joy, which is precisely nothing at all. "I have to say I'm curious as to how that match will play out, in any case." His eyes glittered, and he waved a hand, dismissing them.

The two left, shutting the door behind them. Kakashi looked at Kurenai, who stared back. Neither of them missed the fact that the Hokage had said 'match' as oppose to 'their matches.'

* * *

After being held separately, Hinata found herself released several hours later. She did not know where Naruto was, but she had more to worry about than just him. It was only a day before the final Chuunin exam match, but the idea of the flyers had become one of the main fixations of her life. She got to the point where she felt that Lihua was absolutely right about them. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't go against the woman's logic.

The more she thought about it, and the more she watched her fellow ninjas, the more intense the conviction that something was rendering them all incapable of any activity or any interaction or any thought that didn't have the self as its focal point. Her concern, as well as the concern of everyone she knew of or talked to, was the self. Not finding any recourse, she finally accepted what her mentor said with her whole heart.

She went as deeply as she could into readings about myths and legends in the Konaha library. She had read some of them before, but now she saw something different. Each of the stories she read was an interpretation of myths and legends. In each one of the books, a single mind was apparent. The styles differed, but the drive behind the words was the same. Even though the theme was something as abstract as myths and legends, the authors always managed to insert statements about themselves. The drive behind every one of those books was not the stated theme of the book, instead it was self-service. She had never noticed this before, always choosing to read past the author's bias and enjoy the legends for what they were.

It fascinated her to read between the lines like this, and see something new. She attributed this new understanding to Lihua's teachings. The main question on her mind was whether Lihua was influencing her to see this, or whether there really a foreign mind dictating everything people did.

She lapsed into denial again, bouncing between acceptance and denial. It was insane, but she could not help herself. Part of her knew Lihua had told her an energetic fact, while another part was absolutely certain the woman was pulling her leg. The end result of this inner struggle was a sense of foreboding, as if something imminently dangerous were coming her way. What concerned her more was that all this had already taken place, and she was simply remembering it.

She gathered her courage and asked the librarian on duty, hoping to find some reference to the flyers in other cultures or villages that had connections to Konoha. The man she asked was no help at all, or rather he had no idea what she was talking about. According to him, there were no legends that even remotely resembled Hinata's story of the flyers.

The more she looked, the more Lihua seemed to be the only source of information about this matter. By this time night had fallen, and she went back home. Kurenai was only a wall away, in the next room, but Hinata was too afraid to turn out the lights. She laid down on her mat and closed her eyes, trying to calm down. It took her some time, but she was finally able to slip into trance.

* * *

Hinata came awake with a start to find Lihua sitting by her bedside. She looked around in confusion, but she was now in Lihua's house, not Kurenai's.

"Sensei," she wailed, tiredness still pulling at her, "I've tried my best to study the flyers on my own, but I can't. Why can't I just believe you?" She looked down at her hands, which were shaking. "It's like, there are times when I can almost believe you, and then it seems to disappear. I can't concentrate, and-"

"Focus your attention on the fleeting shadows that you actually see," Lihua said with a smile. Hinata knew exactly what her teacher was trying to do. She was trying to get Hinata to use her senses to convince her.

"That's not the problem," Hinata exclaimed, "I see them everywhere now! I think I'm going crazy! Ever since I talked to you last, I haven't even been able to sleep in the dark."

To sleep with the lights on did not bother Hinata at all. The moment she turned the lights off, however, everything around her began to jump. She never saw complete figures or shapes. All she saw were fleeting black shadows.

The flyers' mind has not left you," Lihua said. "However it has been seriously injured. It's trying its best to mend its relationship with you. But something in you is severed forever. The flyer knows that. The real danger is that the flyers' mind may win by getting you tired and forcing you to quit by playing the contradiction between what it says and what I say. You see, the flyers' mind has no competitors," Lihua continued.

"When it tells you something, it agrees with its own statement, and thereby convinces you that what it says is true. The flyers' mind will say to you that whatever Lihua is telling you is pure nonsense, and then the same mind, your mind, will agree with its own proposition. Yes, of course it's nonsense, you will say. That's the way they overcome us. The flyers are an essential part of the universe," she went on, "and they must be taken as what they are – awesome and monstrous. They are the means by which the universe tests us. We are energetic probes created by the universe," she continued as if oblivious to Hinata's presence, "and it's because we are possessors of energy that has awareness that we are the means by which the universe becomes aware of itself. The flyers are the implacable challengers. They cannot be taken as anything else. If we succeed in overcoming them, the universe allows us to continue."

Hinata shook her head slowly. "I still don't understand-"

"There's only so much you can say about the flyers," Lihua said, cutting her off. "It's time for another kind of understanding." After that the woman fell silent, and would not answer any of Hinata's questions.

Hinata couldn't sleep the rest of the night. She fell into a light sleep in the early hours of the morning, until Lihua dragged her out of her bed and took her for a hike in the mountains. It was very hot that morning. The insects buzzed around, though they seemed to ignore Lihua and focus on Hinata. They did not talk as they walked, and Hinata helped Lihua as she collected a series of plants. Some of them could hardly be seen, and Hinata wondered briefly how the woman knew which ones to pick. When she had enough plants, she headed back for the house as fast as she could.

"We should clean and separate these plants and put them in a proper order before they dry up too much," she explained. They eventually came to a stream, and Hinata quickly became engrossed in the task given to her by her teacher. She pondered what to research next in her hunt for knowledge on the flyers when she got back to Konoha, and worked quickly and methodically, wanting to get back right away to get started in her studies. She really wanted to take her mentor's task to heart, not just to please her, but for her own benefit.

After cleaning and sorting everything, they left the stream and headed back towards Konoha proper. Before they left the mountains, however, Lihua sat down on a high ledge overlooking the valley through which they would have to walk. She didn't say anything for a while, and she was not out of breath. Hinata wondered whether to sit and join her, not being able to conceive why she had stopped to sit down. Just as she was about to ask, Lihua spoke.

"The task of the day, for you," she began in a foreboding tone, "is one of the most mysterious things a warrior can do, something that goes beyond language, beyond explanations. We went for a hike today, we talked about meaningless things, because the mystery must be cushioned in the mundane. It must stem from nothing, and go back again to nothing. That's the art of warrior-travelers: to go through the eye of the needle unnoticed. So brace yourself by propping your back against this rock wall, as far as possible from the edge. I will be by you, in case you faint or fall down."

"What's going to happen?" Hinata asked, and her voice nearly cracked, before she noticed and cleared her throat, trying to stop the familiar fear from coursing through her nerves and overwhelming her.

"I want you to cross your legs as you lean back against the rock wall behind you, and enter into inner silence. Don't fall asleep," she warned. "This is not a journey into dreaming, you must be able to see."

Hinata fought a nearly invincible desire to fall asleep. Before, she had always entered into inner silence by falling asleep. She managed to succeed, and found herself looking at the bottom of the valley from an impenetrable darkness around her. She could only guess that the darkness was simply the shadow of the wall she was leaning against. Then she saw something that chilled her to her bones. She saw a gigantic shadow, perhaps fifty feet across, leaping in the air and then landing with a silent thud. She felt the thud in her bones, but didn't hear it.

"They are really heavy," Lihua said in her ear. She was holding Hinata by the left arm, as hard as she could. Hinata saw something that looked like a mud shadow wiggle on the ground, and then take another gigantic leap, perhaps two hundred feet long across the valley floor, and land again, with the same ominous silent thud. She fought not to lose her concentration. She was frightened beyond anything she could rationally use as a description. She kept her eyes fixed on the jumping shadow at the bottom of the valley. Then she heard a strange buzzing, a mixture of flapping wings and the buzzing of static, as if a radio or walkie-talkie was not on the right station. A gigantic black shadow landed not ten feet away on the ledge to her side.

"Don't be frightened," Lihua said with authority. "Keep your inner silence and it will move away."

Hinata was shivering from head to toe. She had the clear knowledge that if she didn't keep her inner silence alive, the mud shadow would cover her up like a blanket and suffocate her. Without losing the darkness around her, she screamed at the top of her voice, fighting to retain her grip on the fringes of her failing concentration. Just when she was about to give out, the mud shadow took another leap, clear to the bottom of the valley.

She collapsed against Lihua, who put her arms around her sympathetically. Her legs gave way beneath her and her teacher hefted her in her arms. She laid her head against the woman's shoulder, unable to stop trembling. Unconsciousness soon claimed her.

When she awoke, Lihua was putting ice-cold wet wrappings on her forehead and neck to fight against the fever. She was back in her teacher's house. Finally she regained enough clarity to let Lihua help her into a tub of cold water. After a few minutes, the haze cleared from her vision, and Lihua helped her out, drying her off.

"Th-that... that was crazy!" Hinata couldn't help but shiver as she spoke. The predator she had observed was not something benevolent. It was enormously heavy, gross, and indifferent. She clearly felt its disregard for humans as a species. It had crushed humankind ages ago, making them, as Lihua had said, weak, vulnerable, and docile. The perfect food. Lihua left the room to allow her to be alone with her thoughts.

* * *

Hinata woke up drenched with sweat. It took her a few minutes to realized she was in Kurenai's home, as opposed to Lihua's. She took off her wet clothes, wrapped a sheet around herself, sat on her bed, and wept her head off. She almost did not notice when she felt warm arms envelope her.

"Ssh," Kurenai murmured, holding her tightly, "Ssh, what's wrong Hinata? It's okay, just tell me what's wrong..."

Hinata couldn't speak through her tears. She couldn't tell Kurenai that she wasn't crying for herself. She had her anger, her intense fear, and just enough energy to keep the predator from eating her. She wept for her friends and those around her, especially Kurenai. She had not known until that instant that she loved her teacher so much. The woman didn't even have a chance. Kurenai, a Jonin, an elite ninja, and the most considerate being she knew. So tender, so gentle, and compared to the mud shadow, so helpless.

* * *

The two ninjas posted as door-guards for the arena entrance stood ram-rod straight. Soon the entrants for the final Chuunin matches would be arriving. Sometimes a Jonin or two would use this entrance as opposed to entering through the crowded main entrance. It was always instructive to watch the fighters as they entered.

First through was Shikarmaru, oddly enough. The disgruntled and thoroughly bored-looking Genin slouched through the doorway with a resigned sigh. The boy was mumbling as he walked, and the door guards only caught a sliver of his complaints.

"...man, this blows. What a drag. Oh well..." Then he was past and inside the arena.

Temari the Wind Mistress walked through imperiously. Soon after came the Puppet Master, followed by a blowing of sand that heralded Gaara. The permanently angry nin's eyes first glared at one of the door guards, then shifted to the other, then he was past. The two men shifted uncomfortably. There were not many people who could keep still under Gaara's gaze.

Next was Aburame Shino, his collar up, not a bug in sight. His eyes never wavered from the path he walked, and he was past. There were not many people left now.

A woman appeared in the distance. The two men stood straighter. She wore a nondescript ninja vest, but her shoulder-length black hair gave her away. As she came closer they saw that in her hands was a slightly wilted black rose. The stem was wet, it could have just been removed from some vase. The bottom of the stem had been notched. It was obvious that the rose had been preserved as well as possible.

Kurenai brushed past, giving neither of the door-guards so much as a glance. Her mind was obviously elsewhere.

It got quiet.

The two wondered just how many of the entrants were going to turn up missing. There was Sasuke, and Naruto...

A toad hopped across the street in the distance. This might have seemed normal except the toad would have reached to a man's waist, and it had a frightened expression on its face.

Two more toads desperately hopped by, this time closer, on a different street. The two door guards blinked.

A large group of bull steers stampeded through the streets, chasing the toads.

The two guards blinked again, then looked at each other. An orange-clad Genin appeared in the distance, obviously winded. He jogged to where they were standing, finally coming to a stop, his hands on his knees, breathing heavily.

"I'm not..." He gulped in air, trying to speak at the same time. "I'm not late, am I?" he gasped out.

The two guards shook their heads as one.

"Great!" he beamed, still breathing heavily, then he stumbled into the arena. In the distance a large group of bulls chased another toad across the street.

* * *

In the arena, all talk was on how Neji, one of the favorites, had been thoroughly humiliated in the opening rounds of the exam. From where Kurenai sat, she could hear such talk, and in fact Neji himself was visible, where he sat watching the Genins straggle in. She did not hear the talk however, nor did she notice Neji.

Her eyes were not even on the rose she held loosely. They were unfocused, staring into the distance. The woman appeared lost in thought, or perhaps simply lost. Below, Naruto jogged up to the group, still out of breath. His boisterous voice could be heard until the proctor got him to shut up. Six of the eight were now assembled.

Kurenai took in a sudden breath, glancing around as if she had just come to herself and was surprised at her surroundings. Hinata's absence had finally dawned on her. Except Hinata wasn't absent, she was standing in front of Kurenai, the woman's arms on both sides of her. Kurenai sat frozen, her breath coming in short pants. The girl smiled and leaned closer.

Kurenai wondered what the girl was going to whisper to her. Everything about her was a mystery. She idly noticed that she was no longer holding the black rose. Reverse Kawarimi. Hinata leaned closer. Kurenai held her breath.

Instead of moving to the side to whisper in her ear, Hinata put her lips to Kurenai's.

A white hot second stretched out, wrapping around her, cutting her off from the rest of the world. She no longer felt the bench underneath her, she no longer heard the subtle murmur of voices around her. Liquid fire melted from her head down to her toes. It felt like she had been drugged, but she didn't know how that could have happened... unless the drug was on Hinata's lips. She noticed that the girl's eyes were a deep black instead of their usual white.

"_Leave this place."_

* * *

The two door guards were still on the look-out for the final two participants of the exam. They were totally unprepared for Kurenai's high-speed exit. After regaining their footing, they looked at each other, perplexed.

What else would be different about this tournament?

* * *

Neji narrowed his eyes, looking down at the six participants. He had wanted to see the fight between Naruto and Hinata. Whatever else happened, one of them would lose. It was remotely possible they would both lose. In any case, it was a win-win situation. What he didn't want to see was Hinata disqualified for not even bothering to show up.

A soft thump made him turn. His eyes widened in surprise. A girl wearing what Hinata usually wore glided across the field towards the other participants. His eyes bored into her back. He desperately wished she would turn around so he could see her face. Whoever that was, it couldn't have been Hinata.

His eyes never left her, unwilling to miss a possible opportunity. She slid over to the proctor, who backed up a step. They conversed, her back still barely angled to keep her face hidden from him. The proctor nodded, Hinata slid away. Neji still hadn't seen the girl's face.

Naruto appeared far too eager to fight the girl. Briefly Neji envied him. He was close enough to see what she looked like.

The Hokage was welcoming everybody, and the contestants were lining up. The rest of the crowd was only talking about two things: Hintata's appearance and Sasuke's absence. And now the other fighters were walking off the field, leaving Hinata and Naruto facing each other. Hinata turned, still facing away from him, and Naruto approached. The sheer eagerness and anticipation on the boy's face was obvious. Neji's mouth hardened into a straight line.

"Begin," Hayate coughed. Almost immediately Naruto's hands formed a seal and he was surrounded by nearly a hundred of himself. Neji smiled unconsciously.

_What will you do now, Heiress?_

He was genuinely curious. She did not have the Absolute Defense, nor did she have the Sixty-Four Palm Strike. How would she deal with such a multitude of simultaneous attacks? He saw her arms raise in a series of seals. She was still angled away from him, he could not see the sequence. Clouds of black smoke dotted the area surrounding her, and then there were six Hinatas. His smile vanished and his mouth fell open in shock.

It was insane. There was no point for a Hyuga to use the Shadow Clone, since the clones could not use their signature style of martial arts. There was no way Hinata and her five clones could be tearing through the horde of Narutos like they were doing.

Six snakes of cloudy smoke tore through the formation of Naruto clones as they lost cohesion under Hinata's attack. Each clone gave the original a touch more experience, and the popping slowed. Skirmishes raged as the two learned more about each other's fighting style.

A Hinata clone met the real Naruto. The clone was thrown to the wall and slid lifelessly to the ground.

"Ha!" Naruto yelled. Then he leapt back as black darts thunked into the dirt where he had just been standing.

A Hinata, probably the real Hinata, kelt over her fallen clone. She looked up, her eyes dark. For the first time Neji saw her face, and he shivered involuntarily.

"I got one!" Naruto crowed. "Surprised you, didn't I?" He walked forward proudly, only his eyes showing his wariness. Hinata slammed her hand down on the ground in anger. Neji smiled. She had obviously underestimated the boy, at least a little. His smile turned into a frown when he noticed that strands of blackness were stretching from her fingers.

_It can't be,_ he thought disbelievingly. _A summons?_

Something shapeless and dark was wavering into existence. His skin was crawling and he was having to exert effort just to stay in his seat and not bolt for his life. He saw a look of sheer terror on Naruto's face as he looked up, then up some more.

It was only momentary. "You're not the only one, sister!" he yelled, biting his thumb and slamming his hand down on the ground. Neji was rooted to his seat. At first it looked like Naruto's summons had failed, and then he was suddenly sitting on top of the biggest toad Neji had ever seen. He had at least heard stories about Gamabunta, but he had never seen the Chief Toad in the flesh.

Neji still could not understand what he was seeing opposite the giant toad. His mind flatly refused to make sense of it, leaving him staring at a formless shape that inspired a primal fear deep in his gut. The two giant summons nearly filled the arena itself.

"Hmm..." The Chief Toad made deep guttural noises as he puffed his pipe. He neither took his eyes from the dark mass before him, nor acknowledged the orange-clad boy sitting on his head. "This isn't safe," he growled, shifting as he drew his giant knife. "This isn't safe at all..."

No one present would ever be able to remember the actual fight, they were only aware of its aftermath.

The arena was cracked and split, with plants growing from all directions through the cracks. Several black figures were spinning around arms outstretched looking up into the sky, others were walking aimlessly. Curls of blackness were rapidly disappearing, giving clear view of the arena. On the far wall Naruto was spread-eagled, held in place by two large plants that vaguely resembled human shapes. Reddish-orange steam was coming off him in waves, the Kyuubi slowly weakening.

One by one the spinning black figures disappeared in poofs of smoke, leaving only one.

"Umm," Hayate coughed nervously, "winner, Hinata Hyuga!" he called. Hinata flopped over onto the ground. "Uhh..." Naruto was weakly pulling himself from the plants that restrained him. "Winner..." Hayate looked up towards the Hokage, who was watching him with shaded eyes. "Winner, Naruto Uzamaki?" he said uncertainly. Naruto fell to the ground. Hayate coughed.

"Tie," Sarutobi spoke, his gravelly voice echoing through the arena. "There is no winner-" The last Hinata vanished in a poof of black smoke. Silence filled the arena. After a short pause Sarutobi opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say was lost to the ages as the Hokage's booth filled with blinding purple smoke. Darkness once again descended on the arena. At first many assumed this was Hinata's doing, but they were wrong.

The invasion of Konoha had begun.

* * *

Kakashi ran through the smoke, Sakura, Shikamaru right behind him, followed by Pakkun, on of his dog-summons. Sakura had told him how she had gone to look for Naruto, but had not found him. Kakashi could only guess that perhaps Hinata's own genjutsu, if it even was genjutsu, had protected the boy from the mass-effect genjutsu that had taken down almost everyone else.

He stopped, feeling in all directions with his senses. Naruto's chakra was nearby. He turned in that direction and set off, followed closely by boy girl and dog. When he finally caught sight of Naruto he stopped for a moment. He had seen the boy angry before, but nothing like what radiated from the orange-clad genin now. The boy was in a stance, his hands holding a seal, and he was yelling.

"-think you're going to invade my village, huh? Didn't expect this, did you? Take that, you creep! And that! I'll make you all pay for-"

Kakashi could feel the boy sending out chakra pulses, but they were too weak to be techniques, if he were to guess it was almost as if he were activating traps, but that seemed unlikely.

"Naruto!" Kakashi's shout was totally ignored. "Hey Naruto!" At Kakashi's touch the boy turned, his face a mask of fury. The anger slowly melted away.

"Kakashi-sensei! You gotta do something, there these guys, and-"

"I am doing something, so listen to me."

Naruto fell silent as Kakashi outlined the mission he had for Naruto and the others-plus-dog. Shortly after that the others shot off, but Naruto stayed behind. They stopped.'

"Hey Naruto, come on! We've got to hurry!" Sakura yelled. "Sasuke is getting away!"

"I know, just a minute!" He turned back to Kakashi. "Sensei, you know my chakra, right? Can you imitate it?"

"Yes, Naruto," Kakashi replied. "Why?" In the distance a pair of enemy nins popped into view and spotted the pair talking, and began running towards them. Naruto turned and made a seal. A nondescript section of wall the ninjas had just passed exploded outwards, vines entangling the ninjas, who promptly tumbled to the ground end over end finally coming to a halt.

"Uhh, Naruto-" Kakashi began.

"The whole village is wired!" Naruto exclaimed. "You can use my traps if you need to!" Then he was off. Kakashi sighed.

"I'm going to have to have a talk with him when he gets back."

Naruto and the rest of the team disappeared into the distance.

_If he gets back._

Kakashi shoved that thought away and returned to the arena to help Gai finish cleaning up the invading ninjas there.

* * *

Hinata was not aware for how long she wandered. It could have been hours, it could have been days, or could have been even longer. When she finally did begin to come down off the black potion, she did not recognize her surroundings in the slightest.

She found a stream, but she could barely swallow. She stayed in this area for another week, slowly recovering. The land fed her, and helping her to scavenge what she could. When she left the area she quietly bid goodbye to the tangled bushes and green ferns that had held her while she recuperated.

She was still lost. After another day of traveling she had yet to find any familiar landmarks, see any people, or even a hint of civilization. One more day she traveled, growing more weary and more frustrated. Finding another river, she stayed there for a time. It wasn't until the third day that she felt the immense outpouring of energy that led her away from that site.

Following the energy like a moth to a flame, she emerged from the overgrowth to find herself at the base of a waterfall. In the air before the waterfall was a round crackling black sphere of pure energy and destruction. She watched it, transfixed. It burst, and two figures fell to the ground below. She was frozen to the spot when she was who it was. She had no idea where she was, what day it was, or what was going on, but she knew that if she did nothing, Naruto would certainly die.

The black still coursed through her even now, but a part of her mind that was still hers took over her body. She ran towards the two fighters, even as one of them raised his arm high. His hand began to crackle with white electricity, filling the air with the sound of a thousand birds. His attention was solely focused on his orange-clad opponent who was lying on the ground looking up at him.

Hinata fell on top of Naruto just as Sasuke struck downwards. Had he not been surprised by Hinata's appearance, his Chidori would have burned through her and Naruto both, but he lost control of the technique. The light surrounding his hand sputtered and died. He pulled his hand out of Hinata's back, staring down in shock.

Naruto looked into Hinata's eyes. Neither of them blinked. "Wh-Why?" he croaked out. It was all he could think to say.

"Because I love you," Hinata whispered. Naruto opened and closed his mouth, but no words came out. Hinata's head slipped forward onto his chest, and the life went out of her eyes. Had Naruto had any chakra left, he would have gone berserk. Instead he passed out from exhaustion.

It began to rain.

* * *

A ninja flew through the trees, his feet barely touching the limbs, and beside him a dog.

"It's raining," Kakashi murmured, his voice taut. "Can you still track them?"

"No problem," Pakkun muttered. "They're already too close to miss. Right over there."

Seconds later Kakashi landed on the rain-slick rock outcropping. Before him lay Naruto, and on top of him...

"Oh no..." Kakashi whispered. "Is that Hinata?"

"It's her," Pakkun confirmed, though he didn't approach the fallen girl. A female figure bent down over Hinata, laying her hand on the girl. Kakashi blinked.

The woman hadn't been there before. He lifted the mask over his sharingan eye. "Who are you?" he demanded. The woman picked up Hinata and smoothly stood, as if the girl weighed no more than a feather-pillow. Her clothing was austere, but her face was serene, and her hair reached past her shoulders. Kakashi was frozen in his tracks as she smiled, then winked at him. He was still trying to think through how she could have appeared so quickly, when she made a gesture with her arm, and then was no longer there.

His eyes stung, but he refused to blink. It was flatly impossible for him to miss her departure, especially as he had been watching her with his uncovered sharingan. He shunshined to the spot she had just stood, but he could feel no chakra at all, no invisible presence. She had not simply masked herself somehow, she was really gone. He bent over Naruto, but the boy was out cold. His wounds were not life-threatening.

Kakashi looked all around once more, still unable to believe the woman could have vanished so completely without him being able to follow her movements.

* * *

She did not know how comfortable she had been until the cold touched her. A chill seeped around her limbs, enveloping her body. It was not unbearable yet, but it was getting there. She heard a wet tearing sound, and immediately she was plunged into icy air that cut her sensitive skin like a knife.

She opened her mouth to cry out, and spat a stream of liquid onto the ground. She breathed in and immediately cried out at the pain. It felt as if ice-picks had been shoved into her head. For a time all she could do was weep, her body shaking uncontrollably. The pain slowly subsided, or rather she became numb to it.

She opened her eyes, and immediately closed them, crying out again. Her eyes watered even after she stopped crying. Slowly she regained her vision. Pushing herself shakily to a sitting position, she looked behind her. What appeared to be a giant green seed-pod had burst from the ground and split open lengthwise in four pieces. It was what she had come out of.

She was covered in a wet slimy substance that she could not wipe off. It coated her hair, which she saw reached past her waist. A torrent of memories assaulted her, and she lay back down on the ground holding her pounding head. An interminable length of time passed before she awoke again.

Her vision was still blurry, but there was a stream in the distance. She managed to crawl to its edge, gingerly dipping a finger in the water. She had expected it to by freezing cold, but it was warmer than her skin, which was still icy from the wind, which was slowly drying the slime that covered her.

She slipped into the water, cleaning herself with shaking hands. Slowly her shivering subsided. Now clean, she again wondered at her hair. How many years would it take to have gotten this long?

It hit her all at once that she was in her garden. She looked around in wonder. It all looked so mundane to her that she had missed it. She walked back to the pod she had come from. She knew instinctively that it was in the exact center of her garden.

"Hinata." She turned at the voice, even though she knew who it was. "Get dressed Hinata, we have to go." Lihua tossed her a folded pair of pants and pullover shirt. Hinata caught them numbly. "What's wrong?" The woman smiled. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Hinata laughed once, a single puff of breath. She smiled, laughed again. Her teacher joined her. She ran and embraced the woman, who hugged her back. "I remember," Hinata mumbled, "once Chunhua told me that I was more like her than I knew." Lihua pulled back, looking approvingly at her student. "I'm... I was like her, wasn't I? A clone-"

Lihua nodded. "You were you, and yet you were not you. In time, you'll understand the mystery," she said with a smile. "You're old body has been preserved, and it will be ready when you are ready."

"Does that... does that mean I'm not really me?"

"Oh no!" Lihua said with a laugh. "Actually the body you have now is your real body. It's the other one that was the created body." She put a finger on her student's lips, silencing her from asking further questions. "I promise you'll understand later."

Soon Hinata was dressed, and the two of them were traveling quickly through the woods. She felt like she was still numb, as if her feelings had not yet fully returned. If they had, she thought she would be collapsed into a puddle on the ground at her teacher's feet. She was glad that had not happened, she knew the woman would have made fun of her mercilessly her if she had behaved like that.

Suddenly she stopped cold, Lihua stopping beside her. There were two presences up ahead. One of them she knew by heart. She almost stopped breathing. She glanced towards Lihua, who raised her eyebrows. Silently she pleaded with the woman, who finally sighed in mock disgust.

"Go on," Lihua said with a smile. "Say your goodbyes quickly."

Hinata walked forward, moving slowly through the dense brush, still not completely willing to believe her senses. It was too much of a coincidence to run into him like this out in the open forest. Lihua had always told her there were no such things as coincidences, but she had never fully believed the woman until now. Voices floated through the forest.

"Are you ready Naruto?" a jovial voice asked.

"Yeah." Naruto's voice was deadly-serious.

"Good, because we won't be back here for two and a half years!" The man laughed. Hinata pushed her way through the branches into the clearing where the two stood. Jiraiya had already fallen silent. Naruto slowly turned, his expression at first unbelieving.

"H-Hinata?" he squeaked. His face lit up as she first walked, then ran towards him. "Hinata!" They came together roughly, but each managed to stay on their feet. They held each other tightly. "I thought you were dead," Naruto whispered, his voice breaking up. "I saw you die!" He squeezed harder and she didn't protest. "You died right on top of me..." He put his lips to hers, kissing her roughly. She returned the kiss, almost in tears. A short while later Hinata reluctantly pulled away.

"I have to go, Naruto," she said breathlessly.

"Well, I mean, I have to go too," Naruto said, his voice breaking again, "but where are you going? When will you be back? I'm going to go train for two and a half years, and then-"

"I know," Hinata said, laughing, "I heard." She looked away. "I can't answer your question, Naruto. Not right now."

"Later then? That means you'll be there to answer me later, right?"

She smiled at him, but said nothing. Jiraiya stepped forward, his face held carefully neutral.

"Hinata," he said carefully, "the whole village thinks you're dead. Where have you been all this time?"

She looked up at him, wondering what to say. She had just opened her mouth to answer when someone else spoke up.

"Hinata, we have to go. Now."

Jiraiya looked up, his mask falling away as he recognized who it was. "Lihua," he said, drawing himself up and staring at her levelly. "I should have known."

The woman glided over to where Hinata stood, and put her hand on the girl's shoulder, returning Jiraiya's gaze. "Good bye, Jiraiya," she said calmly.

"You're-!" Naruto pointed, his finger fairly trembling, "You're real!" he squeaked. He stumbled towards her.

"Naruto, no!" Jiraiya commanded. "She's dangerous! Stay where you are!" He turned back to face Lihua. "You know I can't let you leave."

"Save your strength for what lies ahead of you," Lihua replied, giving him a sad smile. "This is the last time we'll see each other."

"Lihua, wait!" Jiraiya took a step and reached out his hand, but the woman was no longer there. Hinata had gone as well. Jiraiya stood staring at the place Lihua had stood, his expression wistful. Naruto pulled on his arm trying to get him to move.

"C'mon, we gotta start my training, pervy sage!" Jiraiya didn't move. "I said come on, I've gotta train or she's gonna leave me behind...!"

Jiraiya shook himself, allowing Naruto to lead him away. "Alright," he said. "Let's start your training."

* * *

Kurenai lay on her bed in her darkened apartment, the back of her hand on her forehead. She had long since cried till she couldn't cry any more. Not in front of her team, of course. In front of them she wore the mask she always wore, the mask of Teacher. It covered her grief adequately.

She had gone over and over what Kakashi had told her he had seen. There was no way Hinata had survived. She turned back over to try to chase after sleep once more.

* * *

Over the next several days Hinata traveled with her teacher. Sometimes Lihua talked, telling her meaningless stories, and sometimes Hinata talked, telling her teacher what she had remembered of the woman's teachings.

After days of traveling, the two of them came to a canyon and began to climb. There appeared to be only a single barely passable trail leading up to the flat mesa at the top of the canyon. The top of the mesa was sparsely populated with faded green woody shrubs that gave the vague appearance of trees. Astonishingly, in the fading light Hinata saw Chunhua and another, a boy about her age. With a jolt she knew this to be her companion, the one who had trained with her.

It was like a shock to see him and actually remember who he was. She had never before remembered seeing him in her waking life, but she knew it was him. There were two other people there as well, but she didn't recognize them.

"This is the rest of my team," Lihua said by way of introduction. "That's You-Feng," she indicated the woman, "and the other is Ying-Yan."

Hinata didn't know what to say. At first she didn't see the chasm. Only when Lihua led her to the edge did she become aware that the mesa ended in a precipice. It wasn't really a mesa, but merely the flat top of a good-sized mountain. The mountain was round and eroded on its east and south faces, however, on part of its west and north sides, it seemed to have been cut with a knife. From the edge of the precipice, the bottom of the ravine was perhaps six hundred feet below. A whole row of small mountains to the south and north gave the impression that they had been part of a gigantic canyon, millions of years old, dug out by a no longer existing river.

"It's solid rock," Lihua said as if she were reading Hinata's mind. She pointed with her chin towards the bottom of the ravine. "If anything were to fall down from this edge to the bottom, it would get smashed to bits on the rock, no matter what technique the person knew."

It was at this point that Hinata felt the chakra-drain. It had been unnoticeable at first, but as she held up a hand, she knew instinctively that she could not even summon enough chakra for a single tenketsu strike.

"Ninja techniques don't work here," Lihua commented offhandedly. She turned to face her pupil, her expression grave. "There is a part of you that is still ninja, but when you leave this mountaintop you will leave that part of you behind forever." When the girl didn't respond, Lihua put her hands on the girl's shoulders. "Hinata, my time on Earth has come to an end. I'm about to leave on the journey of my life!"

Inexpressible excitement shone from the woman's eyes, but her statements were devastating to Hinata. The girl truly lost her grip, falling back into a blissful state of fragmentation. There was a core fragment of herself that remained cohesive, of her early childhood. The rest was vagueness, as it had been during her training with Lihua. She had been fragmented for so long that to become fragmented once again was the only way out of her devastation.

On one level she knew that she was there with Lihua, the woman's team, and her complement, her other half, her male companion that she had only known when in heightened awareness. He was there with them now, and she saw him while in her normal awareness. He was leaving her, along with her teacher. It hurt to look into his kind brown eyes.

"Many warrior-travelers have stood on this same flat mountaintop before embarking on their journey to the unknown," Chunhua commented. Lihua turned to Hinata.

"Soon I will be entering into infinity by the force of my personal power," she said in a soft voice. "Chunhua and I are here only to bid you farewell."

"In fact, you will be leaving on your own journey as well," Chunhua cut in, tilting her head towards the sheer cliff face. Somehow, Hinata knew her teachers meant for her to jump off into the valley below.

"You won't be able to rely on us to bring you back this time," Lihua said, her expression serious. "You yourself must want to come back on your own." Her eyes glittered. "Infinity is enticing beyond belief. To return to the world of disorder, compulsion, noise, and pain is not a very appealing choice. You must know that your decision to return is not a rational choice that you make, it is something that you must want with your entire being. If you choose not to return, which is by far the easier choice, you will disappear as if the earth had swallowed you, and you will roam the various levels of awareness that you are able to endure."

"But I won't be able to find you?" Hinata asked.

"No," Lihua answered. "You wouldn't have enough energy to make it to where I will be. If you choose to come back," Lihua continued, "you must tighten your belt, for your fight will have only begun."

On top of that flat mountain, Hinata reflected on her life, and the people she cared for. She felt tears well up in her eyes.

"Loneliness is unacceptable in a warrior," Lihua told her patiently. "Warrior-travelers can only count on one being on which they can focus all their love, all their care. This marvelous Earth, the mother, the matrix, the epicenter of everything we are and everything we do. The very being to which all of us return; the very being that allows warrior-travelers to leave on their final journey."

"But why do you have to leave, Lihua-sensei?" Hinata asked. The sound of her voice made her feel embarrassed. She began to cry involuntarily, driven by self-pity, and she felt even more embarrassed. "I'm sorry sensei, I'm letting you down," she sniffled.

"No, it's just that your awareness has moved back down to your toes again," Lihua said, laughing. Hinata lost all vestige of control and gave herself fully to her feelings of dejection and despair.

"I'll be left alone," she said softly, as if just realizing it. "What's going to happen to me?" She did not feel at all ready to be on her own.

"Let's put it this way," Lihua said calmly. "In order for me to leave this world and face the unknown, I need all my strength, all my forbearance, all my luck, but above all else I need my warrior-traveler's nerves of steel. To remain behind, you need all of what I need. To venture out there, the way we are going to, is no joking matter, but neither is it to stay behind." Hinata was overcome with emotion, and took her teacher's hand and kissed it. "Hey," Lihua exclaimed, pulling her hand back and rubbing it, her eyes twinkling. "Next thing your going to do is make a shrine for me."

Hinata's anguish returned full force. "You're leaving," she murmured. "Forever."

Lihua looked down at her student, and her eyes said it all. "We will never be together again," she said softly. "You don't need my help anymore, and I don't want to offer it to you, because if you are worth you salt as a warrior-traveler, you'll spit in my eye for offering it to you. Beyond a certain point, the only joy of a warrior-traveler is her aloneness. I wouldn't want you to help me either. Once I leave, I am gone," she said matter-of-factly. "Don't think about me, for I won't think about you. If you are a worthy warrior-traveler, take care of your world. Honor it, guard it with your life!"

She moved away from Hinata. The moment was beyond self-pity or tears or happiness. She nodded her head as if to say good-bye, or as if she were acknowledging what Hinata felt.

"Forget the self and you will fear nothing, in whatever level of awareness you find yourself to be," she said. Lihua had a sudden outburst of levity, laughing joyfully. She took one last chance to tease her student. "I hope you find love!" She smiled at Hinata's momentary embarrassment.

Raising a hand in a good-bye, she melted into an orb of shining white light, and floated up into the sky. Joined by Chunhua and Hinata's male companion, and the other two, who all joined her as orbs of light. They circled above the mountain once, their last survey of the marvelous Earth. Then they vanished.

Hinata knew what she had to do. She had run out of time. She took off at her top speed toward the precipice and leaped into the valley below. She felt the wind on her face for a moment, and then blackness swallowed her like a peaceful subterranean river.

* * *

Hinata was vaguely aware of a loud noise, like an animal roaring, or an errant Uchiha practicing a fire jutsu right outside her window. The noise became so intense that she finally woke fully. She was in Kurenai's dark home, she was hot, sweaty, and tired, and her calves were cramping painfully. She got up to go to the bathroom, but she couldn't walk right. She was dizzy, and eventually fell down.

Naruto was gone, had gone to train. She noticed idly that while she was sad, his absence didn't send her into a death spiral of despair, as it normally would. After regaining a modicum of control, she went to the window to close it, though she couldn't hear the noise any more. She realized that the window was locked, and that it was dark outside.

The room was stuffy. She opened the window, not understanding why she had closed it. The night air was cool and fresh. Outside, all was quiet, with not a soul around, which made her wonder where the noise could have come from. She thought nothing more of it, and went to her bed to go back to sleep. She put a pillow under her knees to ease the soreness which still persisted.

As she was beginning to rest comfortably and fall asleep again, a thought came to her mind with such force that it made her sit upright in bed in a single reflex. She had jumped from a mountain in Earth Country! Her next thought was a semi-logical deduction that she must now be a ghost. _How strange,_ she thought. _Why have I returned as a ghost to my room in Kurenai's house?_ The situation was so strange that the absurdity of her statement was lost on her flailing mind. _No wonder I feel different._

But if she were a ghost, how had she felt the blast of fresh air on her face, or the pain in her calves? She touched the sheets of her bed. They felt real to her. She went to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. By the looks of her, she could easily have been a ghost. She looked like hell. Her eyes were sunken, with huge black half-circles under them. She was dehydrated, or dead. In an automatic reaction, she drank water straight from the tap. She could actually swallow it. She drank gulp after gulp, as if she had not drunk for days. She felt her deep inhalations. She was alive, that was for sure. Yet she wasn't elated, as she should have been after such a revelation. It seemed to her that her emotions as a whole had calmed down.

A more unusual thought crossed her mind then: she had died and revived before, in her training. She was accustomed to it, it meant nothing to her. There was no doubt in her mind that she had jumped into an abyss far away in Earth Country. She was now in her room in Kurenai's home, with no recollection of the long journey in between. Even if she had survived, she would have had to make it here somehow. In an automatic fashion, she ran water in the tub and sat in it. She didn't feel the warmth of the water; she was chilled to the bone. Lihua had taught her that at moments of crisis, such as this one, one must use running water as a cleansing factor. She remembered this and got under the shower head. She let the warm water run over her body for perhaps an hour.

She wanted to think calmly and rationally about what was happening to her, but she couldn't. Thoughts seemed to have been erased from her mind. She was thoughtless yet she was filled to capacity with sensations that came to her whole body in waves of feeling that she was incapable of examining as they rushed by. The only conscious choice she made was to get dressed and leave.

Searching for something familiar, she found her steps leading her to Ichiraku's ramen stand. Having spent so much time watching Naruto, she knew every step of the way. The familiar walk this time was a novelty for her. She didn't feel her steps. It was as if she had a cushion under her feet, or as if the sidewalk were carpeted. She practically glided. She was suddenly before Ichiraku's after what she thought might have been only two or three steps.

She knew she could swallow food because she had drunk water in Kurenai's house. She also knew she could talk, because she had cleared her throat and coughed while standing in the shower. She pushed aside the curtains and sat down, as she had always seen Naruto do. She sat on Naruto's favorite stool, and watched Ichiraku's face light up just as she remembered.

"Oh," he replied, scratching his head. "Thought you were Naruto for a minute there." A questioning look came into his eyes. "You don't look to good today, Miss Hinata. Are you sick?"

"No," she replied, trying to sound cheerful. "I've been training for the past twenty-four hours, that's all. By the way, what is today?" The man glanced at the calendar as if to make sure, then at the clock, and told her. It was four forty-five, early morning.

She ordered a large pork bowl, as Naruto had done so often before. As the man went to fill her order, another wave of horror flooded her mind. Had it only been an illusion that she had jumped into that abyss in Earth Country, at twilight the previous day? But even if the jump had been only an illusion, how could she have returned to Konoha from such a remote place in so short a time? Or was it that it had taken that amount of time for her to fly, slide, float, or whatever back to Kurenai's house? To have traveled on foot the entire way was out of the question, since it would have taken far longer than the intervening time allowed just to get from the place where she jumped back to the border of Fire Country.

Her continuity was now broken beyond repair. She had really died, one way or another, at the bottom of that gully. It was impossible to comprehend her being alive, having breakfast at Ichiraku's. It was impossible for her to look back into her past and see the uninterrupted line of continuous events that everyone sees when they look into the past. The only explanation available to her was that she had followed Lihua's instructions. She had moved her point of awareness to a position that prevented her death, and that from her inner silence she had made the return journey to Kurenai's house. There was no other rational way to explain it. For the first time ever, she actually accepted with her whole heart what Lihua had told her, illogical to her senses though it was.

Vivid flashes of memory flitted across her mind, and she remembered Lihua's explanation about why she was so fragmented. Her teacher had constantly changed her level of awareness, and whenever she was in a heightened state, whatever she did there would not be remembered when in ordinary consciousness. Her relationship with the other members of her team were an example. Her real team, not Team Eight. They were her true companions with her on her life's journey. She had interacted with them only in heightened states of awareness, and now one of them, her male other-half, was gone, along with her teacher and the woman's own team. She still did not know the rest of her true team. It occurred to her that it might take the rest of her life to find them, wherever they might be.

While she sat at Ichiraku's that morning, she began to remember. Everything she had done with Lihua-sensei was suddenly coming back to her as a continuous memory. Lihua had lamented to her that all the practitioners of her line had to be fragmented because of the bulk of their energetic mass, which was much larger than that of normal people. This was also how each successive student was found, for their energy enlarged signature was easily recognizable to one who knew what to look for. Lihua had said that each fragment of Hinata had been taught a single skill completely and thoroughly, and that all the fragments had to be put together before she would be on Lihua's level. Looking into Hinata's eyes, she had told her that putting oneself together might take years to accomplish, and that she had been told of cases where some practitioners never reached the total scope of their training consciously, and lived fragmented, only able to use their tremendous abilities at urgent and specific times.

What Hinata experienced that morning at Ichiraku's was beyond anything she could have imagined in her wildest fantasies. Lihua had told her time after time that the world was not solid like most people thought, but that it was in eternal fluctuation where nothing should be taken for granted. The jump into the ravine had changed her outlook on life so drastically that it made her consider possibilities that were as awesome as they were indescribable.

No words could have compared to what she was experiencing, and no lecture could have prepared her for it. That day, in the early morning hours, sitting on a stool and eating pork ramen, she saw the energy of the universe flowing around her for the first time. Her life was like a gigantic puzzle, and now it all fit together. She shivered, letting the chopsticks drop into the half eaten bowl of soup as she considered with sorrow her previous confusion.

_A warrior-traveler weeps when she is fragmented,_ Lihua had said to her once. _But when she is complete, she's taken by a shiver that is so intense it has the ability to end one's life._

Hinata knew without a doubt that she would never see Lihua again. She was alone. She wanted to think about it, to mourn her loss, to plunge into a satisfying sadness the way she had always done before, but she couldn't. There was nothing to mourn, nothing to feel sad about. Nothing mattered. All of her fellow compatriots were warrior-travelers, and all of them, including her, had been swallowed by infinity.

All along she had listened to Lihua talk about the warrior-traveler. She had liked the description, and had identified with it on a purely emotional basis, having never felt at home in Konoha. Yet she had never felt what her teacher had really meant by it, regardless of how many times she had explained it to her. That morning, at the counter of Ichiraku's, she knew what Lihua had been talking about. She was a warrior-traveler. She would always be alone, even when surrounded by others, even those she cared about. Because of her nature, and her destination, she would always be alone, but never lonely.

She had jumped into an abyss, and she had not died because before she reached the bottom of that gully, she had let the dark sea of awareness engulf her. She had surrendered to it, without fears or regrets. That dark sea had supplied her with whatever was necessary for her not to die, but to end up in her bed in Kurenai's home. This explanation would have meant nothing to her two days ago, but at four fifty in the morning in Ichiraku's, it meant everything to her.

She wanted to think about Lihua-sensei, but she couldn't. Besides, she didn't even care about her. There seemed to be a giant barrier between them. She was someone else. The old Hinata would have cried at what had happened, now that Lihua-sensei was gone. The old Hinata would have longed for her. She would have even felt a twinge of resentment because her teacher hadn't taken her pupil with her. That would have been her normal self. She truthfully wasn't the same.

This thought gained momentum and power until it invaded all of her being. Any residue of her old self that she may have retained vanished then. A new mood took over. She was alone! Lihua had left her in charge of her teachings. She felt her body begin to lose its rigidity; it became flexible, by degrees, until she could breathe deeply and freely. She laughed out loud, finally understanding why her sensei had always laughed. She didn't care that others to her side were staring oddly at her. She was alone, and nothing could change that.

She had the physical sensation of actually entering into a passageway, a passageway that had a force of its own. It pulled her in. It was a silent passageway. Lihua was that passageway, quiet and immense. This was the first time ever that she felt that Lihua was void of physicality. There was no room for emotions or longing. She couldn't possibly have missed her teacher, because she was there as a depersonalized emotion that lured her in.

The passageway challenged her. She had a sensation of happiness and ease. She could travel that passageway, alone or in company, perhaps forever. She was standing at the beginning of her own final journey, it was the beginning of a new era. She should have been weeping with the realization that she had found that passageway, but she wasn't. She was facing infinity as Ichiraku's. It was extraordinary. She felt a chill on her back, and heard Lihua's voice.

"_The universe really is unfathomable."_

At that moment the curtains moved aside several seats over and a woman entered. She let the curtains fall behind her and sat down bare yards from Hinata. It was Kurenai. She turned her head and looked at Hinata. Their eyes met. The next thing she knew, Kurenai let out a piercing scream that chilled her to the bone. The woman jumped off her stool and ran out of the ramen stand, turning back to stare at Hinata for a moment before taking off again.

Hinata ran after Kurenai, catching up to her a few buildings down. The woman covered her mouth to keep from screaming, then came forward, slowly putting her hands on Hinata's arms. "Oh my God, you're real...!" She threw herself at Hinata, who returned her embrace.

"Yes," Hinata answered softly. "I'm real."


End file.
